Love Lies
by iSnowX3
Summary: Amu gets paid... to pretend to be Ikuto's girlfriend! As time progresses, many complicated situations help the two grow closer to each other. Will their 'love' ever grow into something more than a lie? AMUTO R&R please! I suck at summaries...
1. Chapter 1

**New story.**

**There is officially going to be no sequel to 'The Dead Promise'. I can't seem to come up with a decent story/plot line for it.

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Ikuto was sitting lazily in a tree when he heard his cell phone ring. He took it out of his pocket and saw that it was his parents calling him.

"What?" He asked in a slighly annoyed tone.

"It's me," His mom said. Ikuto parents traveled around the world for business reasons, leavng Ikuto alone in Tokyo.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Your dad and I are coming back to Tokyo to visit you!" The voice on the other end exclaimed cheerfully. Ikuto almost dropped the phone in shock.

"Crap..." He muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Ikuto told her. "So when are you going to be here?"

"We're boarding the plane right now!" She said excitedly. Ikuto groaned and hung up the phone. He had about 8 hours before his parents' plane would land and he would be stuck in hell. He did the first thing that came to mind: go to his best friend, Kukai's, house, and demand some help.

*****

"Do you know what kind of trouble I'm in right now?" Ikuto complained once he was at Kukai's house and had explained about the phone call from his parents. Kukai looked confused.

"I don't get it," He said. "My parents are just like yours. They're never here because they keep traveling. I usually love it when they are here. Why don't you enjoy it?"

Ikuto sighed.

"It's because they're worried," He explained. "Worried about the fact that I don't have a girlfriend yet. They're so scared that I'm going to grow up single and lonely."

Kukai laughed at this.

"At the rate you're rejecting girls," Kukai warned. "That's actually possible."

"Shut up!" Ikuto growled. "You're not helping, and it's not my fault that all those girls that ask me out are so damn stupid."

"Whatever," Kukai said. "Just forget I said anything. Continue."

Ikuto sighed again.

"The only reason my parents ever come," He continued. "Is to check if I have a girlfriend yet or not. If I don't, then they'll introduce me to some random girl they found in whatever country they were when they decided that they should come check. Last time they came by they introduced me to this weird French girl named Lulu; she was even worse than Utau! So, they're definitely here to introduce me to some random girl again. It's really frustrating. So if there's any way to help me... Just say it."

Kukai thought for a moment.

"Well," He said. "Why don't you just hire someone to be your girlfriend? You're rich, aren't you? You could pay someone to pretend for you."

Ikuto nodded.

"Yeah," He agreed. "I like that idea. But, how am I just going to find a girl out of no where? It's harder than it sounds."

Kukai grinned and patted Ikuto on the back.

"Don't worry," He assured him. "I think I know just the girl. Come on, I'll take you to her!"

Ikuto nodded and followed Kukai out of the house.

*****

Amu slowly walked to her job, totally not in the mood for showing up.

"I hate my job," She muttered to herself. As much as she hated it, she knew she still had to stay working there. It wasn't too hard of a job, and it had decent pay. Amu would've quit a long time ago if it wasn't for the fact that her parents needed the money. Her family was in a lot of debt, more than they could pay off with her parents' jobs. As a result, here was Amu, also stuck working. Though her parents told her that it wasn't necessary for her to do this, that they'd manage on their own, she still wanted to help

Amu sighed as she finally reached her destination: the place she worked... better known as hell. Or you could call it the Guardian Cafe. It wasn't that Amu hated the cafe itself; it was quite nice in there actually. The part she hated was the owner of the store, Hotori Tadase. Amu figured that Tadase could actually be a nice person and a good friend of hers if he just dropped the girly-looks and the 'I'm a king and so much better than anyone else so fear me!' attitude. To be honest, Amu once actually had a crush on him, but that's history. Now it's more like she wants him dead.

"I'm here," Amu announced, since the cafe didn't even open for another couple of minutes. Her friends Rima and Yaya, who also worked there, were sitting at one of the tables, looking completely bored with the lack of work. Amu pulled a chair over and sat next to them.

"Hi, Amu-chan," Rima said. Amu only nodded, not interested enough to show any other type of reaction. She jumped slightly when she heard a sharp tap on the glass door in the front of the cafe. Amu looked up and saw Kukai there, standing with... someone she's never seen before. She ran over to the door.

"Unlock the door!" Kukai shouted through the glass. Amu quickly unlocked the door and let Kukai and his friend in. Kukai turned back to his friend.

"Wait here," He said. "I need to talk to her really quick."

His friend nodded and Kukai took Amu to the other side of the cafe.

"Who is he?" Amu asked.

"He's a friend," Kukai explained. "A friend that needs a big favor from you."

Amu thought for a moment.

"What." She asked carefully. "Is this 'favor'?"

"I need you to pretend to be his girlfriend," Kukai said.

"What?!" Amu yelled in shock. "Where'd this come from? Is he honestly desperate enough to actually have his best friend get someone to _pretend?!_"

Kukai thought for a moment.

"In a way," Kukai said slowly. "Yes. But it's not what you think."

Kukai quickly explained the whole situation to Amu.

"I get it," Amu finally said. "I'd love to help, but what about my job?" I can quit anytime, but I need the money."

"Don't worry," Kukai assured her. "You're getting paid to do this."

Amu's face lit up.

"I'm getting _paid_ to _pretend _to be Tsukiyomi-san's girlfriend?!" She whispered loudly. "How much?"

Kukai shrugged.

"Not sure," He answered. "But I think it's based on how well of a job you do pretending. And don't call him Tsukiyomi-san. You won't look like his girlfriend if you keep calling him that in front of his parents."

Amu nodded.

"Let's go tell him that I'll do it!" She said, already imagining how much money her acting skills could get her.

"Hey Ikuto!" Kukai called out as he walked with Amu back to where Ikuto was waiting. "She says she'll do it!"

Ikuto smirked.

"Perfect," He said happily, putting an arm around Amu's waist.

"H-hey," Amu stammered, blushing. "Wh-what do you think you're doing? You're parents aren't even around!"

"I know," Ikuto said. "But I still want to. You're intersting."

Amu blushed even harder and looked away. As soon as Ikuto was sure that Amu was looking away, he dropped the smirk and changed it into a slight smile.

_She really _is _interesting... maybe our relationship will turn out to be more than a lie..

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Don't kill me if it's horrible! R&R please~


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you sylvanicara, Hime Cullen Tsukiyomi, x Sugar Akuma, xxxUtauloverxxx, NekoBerryKisses, AmutoForever15, JKL67687, Random-Bubbles159, carlaivy, XYNDiCATE, KiNoMoTo18, Shokora N' Strawberries, Amuto20174, and ****nanami ai-chan**** for reviewing. Wow... I think that's the most reviews I've**** ever gotten for any chapter... thanks everyone!**

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"So," Amu said as she and Ikuto walked out of the cafe. "Is there anything I should know?"

"Not anything I can think of at the moment," Ikuto answered. "Why? Is there something you wanted to know?"

"How much am I getting _paid_?" Amu asked, emphasizing the 'paid'. Ikuto laughed.

"So the only reason you're doing this is for the money?" He teased. Amu shrugged.

"More or less," She said indifferently. Ikuto put his arm, which Amu had somehow managed to slip out of, back around Amu's waist. Amu began to blush all over again.

"You really _are_ interesting," Ikuto said to himself, a small smile forming on his lips. Amu looked up from her blushing, confusion all over her face.

"How am I interesting?" Amu asked. Ikuto shrugged and tightened his grip around her as she tried to pull away again.

"About your question from ealier," He said. "You don't need to really know much. Just remember to make my parents happy and not to say anything bad about me. I think that if you don't say anything other than 'yes' and 'no' you should be okay."

Amu nodded.

"So about my pay..?" She asked hopefully. Ikuto thought for a moment.

"Let's start with something small," He suggested. "A hundred a day if you do a good job. Nothing if you don't do such a great job."

Amu's eyes lit up.

"A hundred?!" She nearly screamed. "I thought you said you were going to start _small_!"

Ikuto raised an eyebrow at her.

"You want less?" He asked. Amu shook her head.

"No," She said quickly. "A hundred's fine."

Ikuto smirked and put his other arm around Amu. She blushed even harder than she was earlier.

"H-hey!" She stammered in protest. "H-honestly! W-why are you d-doing this now?! Save it for when we actually _h-have to _pretend!"

Ikuto shrugged and shifted his arms so that Amu was walking infront of him, his arms still around her. He rested his head ontop of her pink hair.

"PERVERT!" Amu screamed. Ikuto ignored her and pressed his nose into her hair, breathing in the sweet strawberry scent.

"Talk about harrasment," Amu muttered.

"Huh...?" Ikuto asked, too engrossed in what he was doing to hear what Amu said.

"Nothing," Amu said. "Listen, can we go back to my house first? I want to change out of this ugly cafe uniform."

"Sure," Ikuto told her, and the two of them walked in the direction of Amu's house.

*****

Amu stopped walking once she was in front of her house. Ikuto released his arms from around her and Amu quickly took the opportunity to pull away.

"Stay here," She ordered. "Getting paid to be a fake girlfriend is not something my parents should know about."

"Who ever said we had to tell them it was fake?" Ikuto asked jokingly. Amu sighed in frustration.

"My dad's just paranoid about that, okay?" She pleaded. "So stay out here until I come back."

"Fine," Ikuto said poutingly. "But you should know that you just ruined my fun."

Amu glared at him.

"I don't care!" She screamed. "Just stay out here!'

She turned around and walked into the house, not waiting for Ikuto's reply. As she walked into the house, she noticed that it was unusually quiet. She walked up the stairs and noticed a note posted on the door to her room.

_Amu-chan~  
Your dad and I found some people that would help us pay off most of our debt! Unfortunately, it's in China, and we only got a ticket for us and Ami because we can trust you to take care of yourself. It would also save us a lot of money if we only had to buy three tickets instead of three, and we didn't want to come disrupt you at work. We should be back in a couple of weeks; a month at most. See you then!  
~Your mom_

Amu sighed as she crumpled the note and threw it into the trash can laying by her door.

"So your parents aren't even here, huh?" A voice from behind her said. Amu jumped and turned around to find Ikuto standing right behind her.

"I thought I told you to stay outside!" She screamed. Ikuto shrugged.

"Doesn't matter," He said indifferently. "No one's home, so no one would notice."

Amu glared at him.

"Whatever!" She said, defeated. "Just stay outside my room while I change."

Amu pushed him out of her room and slammed the door.

"Guys..." She muttered as she changed. "Are so stupid."

"I heard that," Ikuto called from behind the door. "And bring extra clothes and stuff along with what you're wearing."

"Why?" Amu asked, confused.

"Because you're going to live with me now," Came the reply.

"And _why_ would I do that?" Amu asked coldly.

_Like I'd ever want to stay with a pervert like that..._

"Can I come in yet?" Ikuto asked. Amu sighed.

"Sure," She said. The door creaked open and in walked Ikuto.

"So you want to know _why_ you'd want to?" Ikuto asked.

"Acutally, no," Amu replied, causing Ikuto to smirk. "But just tell me anyways."

Ikuto reached in to the trash can and pulled out Amu's note from her parents. Luckily, it was the only thing in the trash, so there weren't any gross stains on it.

"Let's see," He said. "It would make the whole lie to my parents a lot more authentic and believeable, and this note right here says that your family's in _debt._ If you stay with me, you'll get the pay _plus _I'll pay for all your food and whatnot."

Amu stared at him.

"Don't talk about the debt," Amu said quietly. "It's a touchy subject for me. And as for the lie, you honestly do _everything _to make your lies believeable. You must really love lying, huh?"

"Hey," Ikuto protested. "It's not like _you've _never liked before, right?"

Amu shrugged.

"Sure I have," She said matter-a-factly. "Everyone has lied at least once."

"See?" Ikuto pointed out. "Does that mean that you love lying, too?'

Amu shook her head.

"It's different," She explained. "I only lie when aboslutley necessary. Like, to get out of a bad situation or something like that. But, I would never lie to family. That would ruin the whole point of a family. A family is made up of people who can trust each other. If I lied to them, it would break that trust."

Ikuto shrugged.

"Well," He said indifferently. "My family has never really been a family. My parents are away way too often for them to care about how much I lie. And are you trying to tell me that I should just drop this whole thing and not have you help me?"

"NO!" Amu said quickly. "I'll help. I could use the money."

Amu's face fell slightly at the mention of the money. Ikuto studied her face for a moment.

"If you really need the money as much as you say you do," Ikuto said slowly. "I could pay you more."

Amu shook her head.

"Don't," She said. "A hundred dollars a day is already a lot more than I could imagine. I already feel guilty for agreeing to that much. As much as I really _do_ need it, I don't want to be any trouble and ask for any more."

Ikuto wanted to argue saying that he actually had too much money and would've loved nothing more than to give it to her, but he decided to keep his mouth shut in fear that he would make her more sad than she already looked at the moment. He just sat on her bed and watched her silently as she threw various things she needed into a bag.

"You ready yet?" He asked as he noticed Amu zipping up the bag. Amu nodded. Ikuto smirked and picked her up bridal style.

"Let's go," He said, carrying her down the stairs.

"W-what are you doing?!" She stammered, blushing once again. Ikuto shrugged.

"You said that you didn't like how I was holding you last time," He said. "So I thought that I'd try something new."

Amu blushed even harder.

"Screw what I said earlier!" She screamed. "Just put me down!"

Ikuto grinned and put her down on the ground, wrapping his arms around her again. Amu sighed in defeat.

"Of all the people in the world," She muttered. "There are billions of people on Earth, and I get stuck with this pervert."

Ikuto laughed and the two of them walked in the direction of his house.

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**R&R please~ And once again, thanks for that whole load of reviews I got last time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you AmutoForever15, Hime Cullen Tsukiyomi, xxxUtauloverxxx, BlueAmuto, iheartanime43, carlaivy, mysteriousblackcat, XYNDiCATE, Ivy34325, laurikmariuk, Shugoprincess, nanami ai-chan, sakuita, KiNoMoTo18, and sylvanicara for reviewing. Dang, I'm getting A LOT of reviews for this story; thanks guys!**

**Sorry! This chapter would've been out yesterday, except I've been seriously busy. Volunteer work, group projects, tests, homework, and chores actually do build up to loads of stress.**

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Amu stopped walking and stared in shock as she and Ikuto arrived in front of Ikuto's house.

"Oh my god," She said in amazement. "Your. House. Is. Big. Very big."

Ikuto smirked at her reaction.

"Glad you like it," He said. "Because you're living here now."

Amu rolled her eyes.

"Don't remind me," She muttered. "How long are your parents going to be around anyways?"

Ikuto shrugged.

"Honestly," He said slowly. "I have no idea. They stay as long as they want. When they're in the mood for showing up, they show up. Whey they're in the mood to leave they leave."

Amu sighed.

"What was the shortest and the longest time they've stayed," She asked.

"The shortest was an hour," Ikuto told her. "The longest was 2 months."

Amu groaned.

"So I could be stuck here for a couple of months?!" She complained. Ikuto smirked and tightened his grasp around Amu.

"Yup," He said cheerfully. "So I have a chance of keeping you here for a while."

Amu crossed her arms in front of her chest and stomped her foot in frustration. Her pout was interupted by the sound of a car pulling to a stop some distance behind the her and Ikuto. Ikuto turned around, pulling Amu even closer to him.

"They're here," He whispered to Amu. "Remember to act normal and just keep them happy."

Amu nodded as she watched his parents get out of the car. She could instantly see the resemblance from father to son: the dark blue hair and deep blue eyes. However, she couldn't see any type of resemblance from the mom at all; she was small and blonde. As soon as Ikuto's mom saw Amu, still in Ikuto's arms, her face lit up and she ran over to them. She stopped in between Ikuto and Amu, forcing Ikuto to let go of his grip around Amu.

"Ikuto," She said happily. "Who's this?"

"She's the girl I've been dating," Ikuto answered automatically. Amu forced herself to not throw up at the thought of dating the pervert. Ikuto's mom nodded and turned to Amu.

"So you're the love of his life?" She asked eagerly.

"Yes," Amu lied. Ikuto was amazed at the authenticity of her voice.

_If only that was the truth..._

Ikuto's mom nodded.

"Then..." She said slowly, searching her brain for a question. "What do you like about him?"

Amu was thrown off immediately. She only knew him for an hour, and most of it consisted of her yelling at his pervertedness.

_Just keep them happy..._

Ikuto's words rang in her head. She couldn't think at the moment and just let the first thing that came to mind come out of her mouth.

"He's awful!" She said, not noticing the shocked glare coming form Ikuto.

_I told her to stay quiet!_

"He's so stubborn and full of himself," Amu continued. "And perverted. I can't forget that. He's _really _perverted!"

_Am I keeping them happy? If you look at it in some strange, twisted way, then yes, I'm keeping them happy._

Ikuto stared at Amu, horror on his face.

_I'm going to get in some trouble if she keeps this up._

Ikuto's mom clapped her hands.

"She's wonderful!" She gushed at Ikuto. "So honest! Not afraid to hide anything!"

"Sure..." Amu said, sending a smug smile in Ikuto's direction. Ikuto returned her smile with a glare, causing Amu's smile to fade away instantly.

"I-I mean," She stuttered. "He's not _that _bad! He's actually really nice! And sweet, and caring, and so kind..."

Amu winced slightly at every compliment she gave Ikuto. Ikuto's mom turned, confused, backt to look at Ikuto.

"I'm surprised," She commented. "She makes you sound so different than you normally act when we're around. You must really like her, huh?"

"Yeah..." Ikuto said slowly. "Let's go with that."

His mom seemed satisfied with his answer, and turned back to Amu and asked her more questions. Once he was sure she was totally engrossed in that conversation, Ikuto slaped his forehead.

_She probably thinks that we're both nuts._..

Ikuto looked back at Amu, who looked like she was about to crack under the pressure and stress of making about 20 lies a minute. Ikuto frowned; he didn't want anything that his mom should hear to accidentally slip out of Amu's mouth. Ikuto quickly walked back to Amu and put an around around her shoulder.

"If you don't mind," He said rather quickly. "I sort of planned a date for Amu and me."

At the word 'date' his mom's face lit up in a bright smile.

"A date!?" She screamed in excitement. "Sure. Go on ahead."

Ikuto grabbed Amu's hand and walked away. Amu blushed at the contact but followed him.

"By the way," Amu said after following Ikuto for some. "Since when did we have a 'date'?"

Ikuto stopped walking and shrugged.

"Don't know," He said. "You looked like you were about to crack so I lied to get us out of there."

Amu glared at him.

"Come on!" She whined. "It wasn't that long! You actually thought I would crack after three questions!?"

Ikuto glared back at her.

"Considering your first answer," He replied. "Yes, I thought you would crack. Or maybe you would just make me look bad some more."

Amu sighed.

"I wasn't lying," She snapped. "You _are _perverted."

"What about the rest?" Ikuto pointed out. "You've barely known me for a couple of hours. How would you have known that I was stubborn?"

Amu raised an eyebrow at him.

"I told you to stop holding me like that," She replied. "And you wouldn't."

Ikuto smirked.

"Good point," He said. "Which reminds me..."

Ikuto pulled Amu closer to him until she was pressed against his chest with both his arms around her. Amu blushed and squirmed in his grasp.

"Stop!" She whined. Ikuto slid one of his arms higher up so his hand was nearing her chest. Amu eyed the hand frightfully, blushing, then sighed.

"You leave me with no choice," Amu said coldly. Ikuto stopped sliding his hand up in confusion, leaving it lingering right on her chest. Amu stared disgustedly at the hand, opened her mouth wide, and clammped it down right on the hand.

"Ow!" Ikuto screamed. Amu took the oppurtunity to wriggle out of his embrace and get behind him.

"I don't care where we're going," She announced. "But I'm going to walk behind you so you cant get me again."

Ikuto frowned, but then smirked again.

"You know," He said teasingly. "If you really wanted to stare at my butt that badly, you could've just said so."

Amu's mouth dropped open in shock, and she oculd feel her cheeks heating up again.

"P-pervert!" She stammered, then sighed in defeat. "Whatever. You're too much work to argue with."

Ikuto shrugged and turned around to continue walking. Amu followed him, pointedly making sure she stared at his back instead of... below that. Because she was so engrossed in making sure her eyes didn't stray to where Ikuto said, she wasn't looking where she was going. She didn't notice that Ikuto was walking down a flight of stairs (It's like those outside kind of stairs; like the ones that lead to a part of a park or something that is lower than the rest of the park). Amu was shocked when her foot dropped onto the first stepm and she lost her footing. She let out a short yelp as she shut her eyes, waiting for herself to hit the ground. Ikuto heard her and turned around.

"Amu?" He called out, running back up towards her. Amu shut her eyes, waiting for her body to hit the ground. Instead, Amu felt her self land on something soft. Amu opened her eyes then widened them in shock. Laying under her was Ikuto. One of his hands was wrapped tightly around her waist, lessening the impact of her fall, and the other was resting gently on her shoulder.

The part that surprised Amu the most?

She found that she couldn't take her gaze away from the dark blue eyes that were filled with as much shock as hers.

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**This story's acutally been getting lots of reviews... thanks!  
And don't forget to R&R again!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you sylvanicara, carlaivy, iheartanime43, sakuita, Random-Bubbles159, Amuto20174, AmutoForever15, KiNoMoTo18, XYNDiCATE, xxxUtauloverxxx, Natsuya801923, EmikoHoshiko, BlueAmuto, and Shokora N' Strawberries for reviewing.**

**My friend came over one day out of boredom, and she decided to count the reviews for each chapter. 15, 14, then 13. D:, at this rate, I'll have 0 reviews by chapter 15... if I ever get to a chapter 15.**

**Also, sorry for the lack of update. I was on vacation, and the most I could do was check my email for reviews and stuff at the internet cafe in the hotel lobby.**

**Also, this story's rating is being changed to T.. for... a later chapter.**

**Here I _would_ rant about this week's Shugo Chara! Episode, except I haven't had time to watch it yet T_T too busy in L.A.**

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Amu couldn't move. Her face was so close to Ikuto's; the tips of their noses were touching (But sadly, not the lips DX). She could feel his uneven breathing blow gently onto her face, and he could probably feel hers as well. But, neither of them moved an inch. They just lay there, in the middle of a public area, mesmermized in each other's gaze. Amu was slightly startled when she felt a new hand place itself on her shoulder. Ikuto instictively tightened his hold around her, but relaxed once he saw it was Kukai.

"Yo, Hinamori," Kukai said, concerned. "You okay? I saw the whole thing about you falling and Ikuto here catching you..."

Amu flushed at the mention of Ikuto catching her, and she abruptly pulled herself out of Ikuto's grasp. Ikuto reluctantly released his arms from around Amu, wishing he could've held her like that for a moment or two more.

"I'm fine," Amu muttered, turning to Ikuto. "How about you?"

"I should be asking you that," Ikuto replied. "You're the one that fell."

"Yeah," Amu pointed out. "But you're the one who actually hit the ground."

Ikuto shrugged.

"Whatever," He said boredly. "I'm okay."

Kukai looked at Amu.

"Hey,: He said suddenly. "What happened to you? Your whole face is really, really red."

Amu's eyes widened and she dared to raise her hand up to feel her cheek. They felt really warm, causing her to blush even harder.

"U-uh," Amu stammered. "I-I have-have to go to t-the bathroom!"

She took off and ran into the direction of the bathrooms. Ikuto chuckled slightly as he watched her run, a small smile beginning to form on his lips. Kukai gave him a look.

"You shouldn't be laughing," Kukai pointed out. "Amu wasn't the only one blushing. Look at yourself."

Ikuto shook his head.

"No way," He contradicted. Kukai nodded.

"Don't believe me?" He asked. Kukai pulled his phone from his pocket and snapped a picture of Ikuto's face. He then handed the phone to Ikuto. Ikuto stared in alarm at the picture. He was indeed blushing, but not nearly as much as Amu had. While Amu's whole face was almost completely red, there was barely a visible tinge of pink beginning to color his cheeks. Kukai grinned.

"This is cute," He said. "My best guy-friend likes my best female-friend."

Ikuto glared at Kukai and shook his head furiously, but the blush on his face only deepened. Kukai grinned again an snapped another picture.

"What was that for?!" Ikuto demanded angrily.

"This is the first ti'me I've seen you blush," Kukai said earnestly. "This might even be the first time _the_ Ikuto Tsukiyomi has blushed in history! Am I right?"

Ikuto grudginly nodded.

"Hmmm," Kukai said more to himself than to Ikuto. "Wonder how much those fangirls at school will pay for a picture of their _beloved_ Ikuto-kun blushing..."

"Haha very funny," Ikuto said sarcastically, reaching for the phone. "Now delete the pictures."

Kukai shook his head and pulled the phone out of Ikuto's reach.

"Not until you admit that you like Amu," He said. Ikuto sighed.

"Never," He said firmly. "Because it's a lie. Amu and I are only lying until my parents decide to leave again."

Kukai looked at him dissapointingly.

"The only thing that's a lie," He said. "Is you. You're lying to yourself about your feelings for Amu. It's pretty obvious. I've only seen you two together for less than a day and I can already tell that you like her."

Ikuto was silent for a moment.

"Techinically," He finally said. "You're wrong."

Kukai was shocked.

"So you don't like her?" He asked disbelievningly. Ikuto shook his head.

"Nope," He corrected. "I think I _love _her."

Kukai grinned and patted his friend on the back.

"Told you," He said. Ikuto smirked.

"But," He threatened. "Tell Amu about any of this and you're dead. Got it?"

Kukai nodded.

"Speaking of Amu," He said. "Wonder if she likes you back..."

Ikuto looked at him weirdly.

"You could tell if I liked her," He said disbelievningly. "And you can't tell if she likes me?! How does that work out?"

Kukai shrugged.

"Well it was plainly obvious on your face," He told Ikuto. "The way you looked at her could have instantly told anyone walking by on the street that you wanted her. And as for Amu, I could never tell. Whenever I tried to guess what she was thinking, I would always be wrong. So, I gave up trying years ago."

Ikuto sighed in frustration.

"See this why I don't want to tell her yet," He complained. "I don't know what she's going to say."

Kukai laughed.

"I thought you were Tsukiyomi Ikuto," He said. "The guy who never cared about what any girl thought of him, no matter how badly they wanted to date him."

Ikuto scowled.

"Amu's different," He admitted.

"I know," Kukai said. "I was just kidding. Well, half kidding. You really shouldn't care about what response you're going to get from her. What's important is that you just let her know how you feel. And if you say it at the right time, you'll probably get a good response."

Ikuto stared at Kukai in shock.

"How do you know all of this?" He asked curiously.

"Because I've tried it," He said proudly. "It's not like there was any other way to explain how Utau and I are daiting right now."

"You're daiting my little sister?!" He asked in disbelief. Kukai shrugged.

"I don't see why not," He said. "Besides, haven't you noticed that there were less attacks made on you during the past few weeks."

Ikuto was about to answer, but Kukai's phone began to ring.

"It's Utau," Kukai explained. "I'm supposed to go with her somewhere today, so I should go now."

Kukai turned around to walk away, leaving Ikuto to stand there alone and wait for Amu.

*****

Amu frowned at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Sure enough, her cheeks were extremely red; a shade of red that probably hadn't been discovered yet. She had spent the past 20 minutes standing in front of the sink splashing cold water on her face, hoping to make the heat go away (I tried this, it really does work). However, her thoughts would always stray back to Ikuto, making any attempt to make her blush go away unsuccessfull.

_Why does he always stay in my head?_

Amu remembered years ago, when she still had a crush on Tadase. Tadase wans't on her mind back then nearly as much as Ikuto is now.

_So... do I _like _Ikuto!? It can't be right? How could I fall in love with a pervert like that..?_

Amu shook her head, clearing her mind again. With one last look into the mirror, she realized that there was no point in making her blush go away; it would just come back. She shrugged and headed out of the bathroom and back to Ikuto. She found him waiting on a bench.

"Ikuto," She called out. Ikuto jumped slightly, startled, but calmned down once he noticed it was Amu standing here.

"Let's go back," He said, smirking. He walked behind Amu and grabbed her tightly again. Amu's full blush came back as she tried to struggle out again.

"Do you love teasing me or something?" Amu muttered. Ikuto shrugged.

"Acutally yes," He said, picking Amu up from the ground and began to walk home carrying her. Amu continued struggling, but she slowly began to stop. After Amu had completely stopped, Ikuto put her back down on the ground.

"You let go?" Amu asked in disbelief.

"Yup," Ikuto answered. "You weren't fighting back, so it got boring. Besides your heavy."

Amu glared at him.

"Shut up!" She screamed. Ikuto laughed, continuing to walk back.

*****

"Your room is upstairs," Ikuto told Amu once they got back to the house. "Second door on the right."

Amu was about to say something to complain about his perverted side, but then noticed Ikuto's mom coming through one of the doors behind Ikuto. She immediately threw her arms around his neck and leaned into his chest.

"Ikuto -kun," She said in a falsely cheerful voice. "I'm going to go upstairs first, okay?"

"S-sure," Ikuto said stiffly, doing everything he could at the moment to get rid of the heat he could feel rising up to his cheeks again. Amu finally let go of him and cutely ran up the stairs. Ikuto could finally feel the blush disappearing since Amu was out of sight. His mom walked up to him, smiling widely.

"She's so cute!" She exclaimed. "Totally perfect for you!"

Ikuto smiled and nodded.

"Yup," He agreed. "She really is cute."

_She's probably perfect for me too..._

****

Amu opened the door to the room, the cheerfull smile instantly vanishing from her face. She had always hated fake-smiling; it would hurt her cheeks with it's un-naturallness. Amu flopped onto the bed and took a look around the room. It looked pretty normal, except everything in the room was blue: beds, pillows, walls, tables, chairs, _everything. _It even felt as if someone ahd been living in this room the whole time.

_Good... then I won't have to mess it up to make it look like I've been here loads of times._

Amu glanced at the clock on the table beside the bed. 12:30.

_Dang... I was out with Ikuto for that long?_

Amu felt sleepiness over come her, so she crawled under the covers of the bed and felt drowsiness take over her thoughts the moment her head hit the pillows with a soft 'thud'.

It occurred to Amu that she might have went into the _first _door on the right instead of the _second _one. Amu

*****

Ikuto slowly walked up the stairs and into his room. It's only been a day since he met Amu, and he's already fallen in love with her. Ikuto flopped onto his bed, ready to go to sleep, when he noticed something on the bed next to him. Something soft... and warm. He turned around, and saw a lump next to him, a giant mass of pink sticking out from the edge of the covers...

****

READ THIS:

Okay for a couple chapters from now, I need you guys' suggestions. Would you rather have a drunk Ikuto or a drunk Amu? You can vote on the poll on my page or just put it in your review. Please tell me, it'll alrter how the story goes! Personally, I would rather write about drunk Amu, since I've barely seen any stories with that, but I'll leave it up to you to decide.

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**Review please!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you sylvanicara, Hime Cullen Tsukiyomi, xxxUtauloverxxx, iheartanime43, nanami ai-chan, xhappily-randomx, avni52, Amuto20174, EmikoHoshiko, Greenclover78, KiNoMoTo18, mikohoshina, strawberriesatmidnight13, carlaivy, xiiaoICEangel, animefan131, sakuita, Evee-san, Amuto-4eva, and eapl for reviewing :D**

**Sorry for the late update... been really busy and suffering from _very _bad writer's block. In the beginning I had the idea all planned out but when I started writing it, that idea began to sound stupider and stupider so I spent a little bit of time just sitting in my room, thinking of a new idea.**

**In case you guys haven't went to check, drunk Amu won. By _a lot._ If you count reviews and poll results (and if my math skills are correct) Amu got 24 and Ikuto got 6.**

**And also thanks for the suggestions I got for the later parts of the story~ I'll use some of them... later. The story that I planned is too short so I'll try to add in as much of those ideas as I can.**

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Ikuto's eyes widened when he saw Amu curled up in his bed. He sat up and began to poke Amu gently.

"Amu," He said quietly. "Wake up."

Amu slapped his hand away and buried her face in his pillow.

"Go away, pervert," She muttered into the pillow. "Only perverts like you go bug people in their sleep."

Ikuto shook her.

"You're in the wrong bed," He hissed. Amu kicked him.

"Stop bothering me," She whined, pull the covers over her head and falling asleep again. Ikuto sighed. There was probably no way she was getting out of his bed. He considered sleeping with her for a moment, but thought better of it once he imagined Amu's reaction to this once she wakes up. Looking around, he remembered the couch he had in his room. Ikuto slowly got off the bed, not wanting to wake Amu, and walked silently over to the couch. As he sat on it, he frowned about how different and uncomfortable it felt compared to his bed. But, since he still valued his life, he was going to stay on that couch so Amu would have no reason to rip out his head. He leaned his head back and felt himself quickly fall asleep.

*****  
Amu opened her eyes and sat up. She looked around the room as she rubbed here eyes sleepily. Everything looked normal: there was sunlight streaming through the windows, her bag was still laying where she threw it last night, Ikuto was sleeping on the couch... Amu widened her eyes and jumped out of the bed after that last one. She quckly walked in front of the couch and stared at Ikuto. Ikuto was still in a sitting position; the upper half of his body was beginning to tilt sideways, and Amu noticed that he looked pretty uncomfortable.

"Stop staring," Ikuto mumbled, interupting her thoughts. "You perv."

Amu jumped slightly and felt her cheeks heat up.

"I-I wasn't s-staring!" She stuttered. "I-it's your f-fault that you're in the r-room that you gav-gave me!"

Ikuto sat up, yawning, and shook his head.

"_Someone _can't count," He said teasingly. "You're room's the one next door. The second one on the right, not the first."

"Why didn't you just wake me up then?" Amu asked. "I bet you were being perverted all night while I was asleep!"

Ikuto raised an eyebrow at her.

"I _tried _waking you up," He told her. "But I got kicked in places I wish I was never kicked in because I tried that. And I didn't do anything perverted to you. Unless.. you _want _me to?"

Ikuto smirked as he saw Amu's face visibly become redder by the second.

"D-do no-NOT!" She screamed, but frowned. "Sorry for making you sleep on the couch."

Ikuto shrugged.

"It's not as bad as it looks," He assured her. "But, since you're really sorry, how about a hug for forgivness?"

Amu glared at him.

"You wish," She muttered, plopping herself down on the opposite side of the couch that Ikuto was sitting on.

"Yes, I do wish," Ikuto said calmly. Amu stuck her tounge out at him.

"Make me," She said. Ikuto nodded.

"If you say so," He said. He leaned across the couch and wrapped his arms around Amu's waist, resting his head on her shoulers. Amu let out a small yelp and tried to push him away with no success.

"Can't you think of some other way for you to forgive me?" Amu asked desperatley. Ikuto thought for a moment.

"How 'bout a kiss?" He asked hopefully. Amu's face flushed bright red again.

"N-never you pervert!" She screamed. Ikuto shrugged.

"At least I tried," He said to himself, tightening his arms around Amu. Amu sighed in defeat, but was saved when she heard Ikuto's phone ringing. Ikuto glared at it hatefully for a second, and set it to speaker phone so he wouldn't have to let go of Amu.

"What do you want?" He asked in an annoyed tone into the receiver.

"Was I... interupting something?" The other voice asked timidly. Amu immediately recognized the voice as Rima's.

"Rima?" She asked. "Why are you calling Ikuto's phone?"

Ikuto looked at Amu, surprised.

"You know her?" Ikuto asked. Amu nodded.

"We're friends," She said proudly. Ikuto glared at the phone one more time.

"Okay then," He said slowly. "Since she's your friend, she won't get hurt as badly for interupting my cudle-time with you."

Amu's eyes widened and she glared at him.

"We. Were. Not. CUDDLING!" She told him angrily. "And don't hurt Rima! It's not my problem that you somehow confused your harassment for cuddling!"

"...Amu?" Rima asked again. "What just happened?"

Amu glared at Ikuto.

"Nothing," She said. "Nothing out of the usual."

_Which is getting harrased by this butthead._

"Uh.. okay then," Rima said, completely unconvinced. "Anyways, I tried calling your house, but no one answered, so I called Kukai to ask if he had any ideas about why. Kukai just told me to call this number, so I did, and this guy starts yelling at me. Care to explain?"

"It's a _long _story," Amu said, causing Ikuto to smirk. "I"ll explain another time. So, why'd you want to talk to me?"

"Nagi and I were going to go to the mall," Rima explained. "And I was wondering if you wanted to come. Your friend can come too."

Ikuto grinned at Amu.

"You hear that?" He asked. "I'm your _friend._"

"Shut up," She hissed, her face growing redder by the second. She then turned back to the phone. "Sure, we'll come."

"Okay!" Rima said. "Be at the mall in.. an hour?"

Amu looked at Ikuto.

"An hour okay?" She asked him. Ikuto raised an eyebrow at her.

"You don't ask me whether I _wanted _to go to the mall with your friends or not," He pointed out. "And yet you ask me if I'm okay with the amount of time we have to get there."

"Well _do _ you want to come?" Amu asked.

"If if means I get to follow you around then yes," Ikuto said, smirking, Amu blushed.

"An hour's fine, Rima," Amu said. "See you then."

Ikuto hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket. Amu stared in surprise as he willing got himself off of her.

"I forgive you now," He announced to a still shocked Amu. He studied her face for a moment and smirked. "Unless that is, you _didn't_ want me to get off..."

Amu jumped off the couch.

"Forget I said anything," She muttered. "Anyways, I'm going to go get ready. In the _second room._"

Ikuto smirked.

"Remember," He teased. "Two comes after one."

Amu blushed.

"I know that!" She yelled at him, picking up her bag and stomping out the room. Ikuto smiled and closed his eyes.

"3..2..1.." He said quietly to himself.

"IKUTO!" Amu screamed. "It's a bathroom!"

"That's the _third _one," Ikuto called back to her. He heard a door slam, some footsteps, and then a different door opening.

"Oh," Came the reply. "I knew that."

Ikuto quietly laughed to himself.

*****

Amu closed the door behind her and sighed. She threw her bag on the ground, frustrated.

_Ikuto... he's really starting to mess with my head. t's like I'm stupider everytime I'm around him... stupider... is that even a word?_

Amu groaned and slapped her forehead. Everything she did reminded her of her most recent embarassing moment in front of Ikuto.

_1 comes before 2, which comes before 3!1-2-3; that simple! How could I have forgotten that?!_

She frowned as she began to unpack her bag and look for something to wear. In the end, she chose a white shirt, black vest, and gray mini-skirt. After changing, Amu glanced at the clock. She still had time before she had to go meet with Rima and Nagihiko at the mall with Ikuto. She decided that she would look around the house for a bit. When she opened the door to go out of her room, she realized that Ikuto's door was still open. Amu took a quick peek inside, and gasped at what she saw. Ikuto was walking across his room... shirtless. He looked up to see Amu staring, and smirked.

"Like what you see?" He asked. Amu felt her cheeks turning bright red again.

"N-NO!" She stammered. "Anyways, what are you doing... walking around l-like.... _that._"

"Well," Ikuto told her. "You should thank me, giving you something to stare at."

Amu widened her eyes and jumped back in shock.

"P-Pervert!" She screamed. Ikuto laughed and shook his head.

"Just kidding," He said. "Anyways, you ready to go?"

Amu nodded and Ikuto smirked, picking her up bridal-style. Amu didn't make any move to escape; she just sat there, arms folded across her chest. Ikuto looked at her.

"What's wrong?" He asked, a hint of concern in his voice. Amu stared back.

"Is there _supposed _to be something wrong with me?" She asked. Ikuto shook his head.

"No," He said. "It's just that normally you fight back, and this time you didn't. Are you sick or something?"

Amu glared at him.

"I'm fine," She told him. "It's just that there's really no point in fighting back anymore. No matter how hard I try, you never give in. So it's pretty pointless now."

Ikuto frowned and put Amu down.

"You're no fun anymore," He pouted. "Let's go."

He walked ahead of her. Behind him. Amu smiled triumphantly.

_It worked... Note to self: Not fighting back when Ikuto harasses you actually makes him stop the harassment._

*****

Amu and Ikuto walked to the mall and found Rima and Nagihiko waiting for them outside.

"So..." Rima said, looking at Ikuto. "You're Amu's boyfriend? The guy that tried to bite my head off for interupting you guys this morning?"

Ikuto grinned and nodded.

"Yes I am," He said proudly.

Amu, who was talking to Nagihiko, whirled around and sent a hard glare in Ikuto's direction.

"Now just wait a-" Amu began. Rima turned her back towards Amu.

"Wait... so you're _not_boyfrined/girlfriend?" Rima asked, confused. "Then why were you cuddling?"

Amu glared at Ikuto again.

"Yeah, Ikuto," Amu said sarcastically. "Why don't you tell her why we were _'cuddling'._"

Ikuto smirked and walked behind Amu to wrap his arms around her waist again.

"Because," He explained. "Amu-_chan_ loves it very much."

By now, Amu's face was so red there probably wasn't a name of a shade of red to describe that color.

"Nu-uh!" She whined. "It was because you're so perverted!"

Ikuto shrugged and placed his head on Amu's shoulder.

"We have a deal, remember?" He asked her quietly. Amu had almost forgotten about the whole plan; she was too busy complaining in her mind about Ikuto's perverted-ness. She sighed.

"Fine," She muttered. "Go ahead, use that as an excuse to be a pervert."

Ikuto grinned.

"Is that all you can think of?" He asked. "Me being a pervert? You've been using the same excuse since we met, think of something new. Me being perverted is probably a known fact already."

Amu glared at him.

"Anways," Rima, who had been standing there with Nagihiko the whole time looking confused, cut in. "Let's go."

Amu pried herself out of Ikuto's grasp and followed Rima and Nagihiko into the mall, Ikuto following right behind her, waiting for the perfect moment to make another perverted move.

***** Five hours and a couple hundred stores later...

Rima and Amu were each holding a load of bags, and even Ikuto and Nagihiko's hands were full, since they had offerend to carry a couple of the thousands of bags that the two girls had bought.

"God," Ikuto muttered. "I'm going to be poor after this."

Ikuto had offered to pay for most of Amu's stuff, since Amu still had that... money issue. Of course, he hadn't realized that Amu would use up this much of his money. Not that it really mattered. His parents would probably gladly pay it all off, knowing that he spent it all on Amu, his 'girlfriend'. He watched as Amu laughed and talked with Rima and Naghiko. As much as he loved seing her happy, it kind of bothered him how he was probably the only person in the world who couldn't make Amu smile like that. The only person who would do anything to make her that happy couldn't do it.

Ikuto's thoughts were interupted by the feeling of a whole new load of bags being piled ontop of his arms.

"Hold these for me, will you?" Amu asked him. "I'm going to go get sometihng to drink at the store over there. Want anything?"

Ikuto shrugged.

"Anything chocolate," He told her. "And hurry back. If my arms fall off, I'm blaming you."

Amu grinned.

"If they fall off," She said more to herself than Ikuto. "Then you can't do anything perverted to me anymore!"

"Yeah, right," Ikuto said sarcastically. He bent down and leaned forward, gently nibbling on Amu's ear. Amu's scream could have been heard from the other side of the mall.

"P-PERVERT!" She screamed once again. The red on her cheeks darkened as people passing by stopped to stare at the screaming girl. Amu ignored them all, only focused on glaring at the pervert standing there smirking in front of her.

"I'll be right back," She hissed. "Don't do anything perverted while I'm gone."

Ikuto smirked.

"Of course I won't," He said lightly. "There's nothing perverted to do while you're gone."

Amu let out a frustrated sigh before turning around to enter the store.

***** (This part wtas just for my own entertainment. Skip if you want.)

"Here's youre coke and chocolate shake," The cashier said, handing two drinks to Amu.

"Thanks!" Amu said politley, taking the drinks and walking back to Ikuto. As soon as Amu was out of sight, a very distressed worker ran out from the back of the store.

"Sir," She said the the cashier. "We have a problem. A very _big _problem."

The cashier looked shocked.

"What happened?" He asked in a concerned voice.

"That new worker," The frightened worker explained. "Hotori Tadase, I think. That one that started here last week because his old cafe closed down... welll, he accidentally switched the beer and the coke!"

The cashier stood there, too shocked to say anything.

"So that means..." He finally managed to say.

"That means that everyone who ordered coke actually got beer!" The other worker finished for him.

"Shit..." The cashier muttered. "HOTORI-SAN!"

Tadase immediately ran out from the back of the store and in front of the cashier.

"Yes?" He asked timidly.

"Since the manager put me in charge for the day," The cashier said. "You're fired!"

***** An hour later

Ikuto looked at Amu worriedly. For the past hour, Amu's face was unusally constantly fading between shades of pink and red, even though Ikuto hadn't done a single perverted thing.

"Amu-chan," Nagihiko suddenly said. "Are you okay?"

Amu giggled slighly.

"I feel fine Nagi-kun~," She said. Rima stared at her.

"Amu," Rima said, concerned. "Is it just me, or do you sound a bit drunk?"

"She _does _sound kind of different," Ikuto commented. "But how can she be drunk? She didn't have anything to drink to day except for coke..."

Amu suddenly tripped on thin air. Ikuto barely caught her, his arms still loaded with Amu's shopping bags.

"But the bags down there," Nagihiko said, pointing to a bench off to the side, away from all the stores. Ikuto nodded and walked over to the bench, Rima and Nagihiko following him. He sat down on the bench, placing Amu on his lap and the bags next to them on the ground.

"What could be wrong with her?" Rima asked worriedly.

"Attention," The loud mall speaker interupted them. "Apparently, there was a mishap in the Guardian Drink Store. A _certain, irresponsible employee_ had accidentally switched the coke and the beer. We're sorry for any inconvienence this has caused, and can assure you that this employee was fired immedaitely, and if you would like to complain, please come to us, and we'll make sure he takes full responsibility."

Ikuto stared at the speaker disbelievngly, then at the drink Amu was holding, which still had a little bit of drink in it. Naghiko took the cup and sniffed the inside, quickly pulling away in disgust.

"Yup," He confirmed. "That's beer."

Ikuto looked at Amu worriedly.

"How are we going to get her home with all this stuff?" He asked more to himself than to Rima and Nagihiko.

"Leave that to us," Rima said. "We'll take her bags. Just tell her to come get them at my house... whenever she's normal again."

Ikuto nodded, standing up.

"Come on," He said to Amu, pulling on her arm gently. Amu pulled her arm away and crossed them over her chest.

"Amu doesn't want to walk," She pouted innocently. Ikuto sighed.

"Amu, if you snap out of this on the way home," He muttered. "Remember that this is all your fault."

He picked Amu up and carried her home.

*****

Ikuto opened the door to Amu's room and set her down gently on the bed. Just as he was about to leave, he felt something pulling on his arm. He turned around and saw Amu, sitting crosslegged on the bed, both arms wrapped around Ikuto's.

"Amu-chan doesn't want Ikuot-kun to leave," She whined. "Can Ikuto stay for a little bit."

Ikuto hesitated.

"Please?" Amu begged, her golden eyes glowing with innocence. One look into her eyes and all the willpower Ikuto had to leave her alone crumbled away.

"Fine," He said, sitting on the bed next to Amu. Amu smiled brightly and threw her arms around Ikuto.

"Yay!" She exclaimed happily, pressing her face into his chest. Ikuto stiffened as Amu lifted one of her arms up to twirl them around in his dark blue hair.

_I will not do anything perverted to her. I will not do anything perverted to her. I will not do anything... oh screw this. I'm going to go mad here..._

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**Review please! I was happy with the amount of reviews I got last chapter, so keep that up!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you xiiaoICEangel, Amuto20174, sylvanicara, EmikoHoshiko, shelles829, xhappily-randomx, iheartanime43, spandextor the vamp-chick, anifreak o.O, KiNoMoTo18, .x, Natsuya801923, Shokara N' Strawberries, Evee-san, xxxUtauloverxxx, MangaFanXD, and Amuto 4-eva for reviewing the last chapter.**

**Thank you Amuto20174, Shokara N' Strawberries, Kyuu no Amuto, and xhappily-randomx for reviewing that author's note :D hopefully I did fine on my finals.**

**I _was _going to put a lemon here, but a good friend of mine, who is also a big fan of this story, told me that she would feel uncomfortable reading anything rated M. Considering the fact that she's one of my best friends, and she's been through a lot the past few days, I decided that I would bring it down a notch, just for her... I actually had something much, much more explicit and _'descriptive'_ planned in the beginning ._.**

**Anyways, it's one test down, four more to go. Luckily, I have another week and a couple of days before those last four test. Hopefully I did fine on the one that I did today.**

**Overall this chapter was pretty easy to write. It was fun to play around with a majorly OOC Amu :D**

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Amu wrapped her arms around Ikuto's neck and her legs around his waist.

"What are you doing?" Ikuto asked carefully, his hands itching to pull Amu in closer. Amu raised her head to look at him with half-lidded eyes.

"Amu's tiredddd," she slurred. "And Ikuto-kun's more comfortable than the bed."

Ikuto stared at her in shock.

_Does she have like this... alter ego that comes out when she's drunk or something?_

Amu leaned back a bit and studied Ikuto's face.

"You look upset," She commented. "Is there something you wanted to ask me?"

Ikuto shook his head.

"No," He lied. "Just thinking about something."

_Yeah... thinking about how I should ask you how you feel about me._

Amu was silent for a moment. Ikuto suddenly felt himself being pushed backwards, so that he was lying on his back on the bed. Amu then slowly climbed on top of him, and Ikuto had to use every last bit of his strength to overcome the lust he was feeling. The pressure of her soft and warm body on his, her practically bare leg rubbing against his (she was in a mini-skirt remember?), the strands of pink hair that were falling from her face and tickling his neck... everything about her made Ikuto want to just give in and satisfy the want for her that was constantly growing by the second.

Amu leaned her face closer to Ikuto's, so close that there was less milliimeter between their lips. Despite the still-strong scent of alchohol blowing gently from her breathing all over his face, he longed to close the small distance between them. He gazed into her cloudy and unfocused, yet alluring eyes, and felt his mind begin to go mad from his need. A huge part of him wanted him to feel her lips on his. Even if it is wrong to take advantage of her wasted form, he longed to do it.

"I want to tell you a little secret of mine," Amu whispered seductively, the gap in between their mouths so small that her lips brushed Ikuto's lightly with every movement of her mouth. Ikuto bit his lip, be held his breath... he tried everything he could to keep himself sane.

And then he felt himself snap. No matter how hard Ikuto had tried to resist, his desire for Amu was just too great. He leaned in, clearing the small gap between them... their lips met, warm despite the chill blowing in gently from the open window. The low, quiet moan coming from Amu when Ikuto slipped his tounge into her mouth drowned out the sound of Ikuto's nervous heartbeat.

Amu pressed closer to him, deepening the kiss as Ikuto pushed his hands inside her clothes, and letting them explore everywhere. Arms around Ikuto's neck, Amu squeezed him tightly. Ikuto heard her breath catch as he slid his hands out from under her shirt and instead run them down her creamy leg. His senses brought him everything about her: her rhythmic heart thumping audibly in her chest, the tempting, irresistable taste of her mouth, her sweet, strawberry scent that was only slightly dampened by the beer...

Then she pulled away, a tipsy smile plastered on her face. Ikuto tried to hide his feelings of dissapointment from spreading over his face. He want to have the moment last forever wasn't even close to being fufilled, but one look into her dull, murky eyes sent a stab of guilt piercing into him, forcing him to remember that Amu hadn't done this willingly, and in a couple of hours she'll have forgotten any of this happened.

_I... kissed her... this is wrong. Ikuto, it goes against everything you've ever learned to take advantage of a girl who's extremely close to being completely wasted. Not counting the fact that she can't think straight right now, so she'll probably just give in to anything I want._

Ikuto mentally slapped himself for letting himself go that low, to do something like that to a girl who had a currently fogged up mind. His want to enjoy that moment with the Amu and the amount of love he held for her was just too much for Ikuto to single-handedly resist.

As he gazed into her cloudy, half-closed eyes, Ikuto felt the sense of need beginning to grow again, and quickly turned his head so that he was looking at one of the pillows laying on the bed instead of the girl ontop of him. Amu watched him carefully, a small giggle escaped from her mouth.

"That was fun," She said in a dazed tone, . "You still want to hear what I was going to tell you?"

Ikuto nodded. He closed his eyes and sighed in content as Amu's figers lingered on his face, brushing away some of his hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. Surprisingly, these small things that Amu did made the want fade away almost as much as the big things did. Which was fine with Ikuto.

"So," Amu began. "There's this guy that I know. And I think I might love him."

Ikuto stiffened. From the way she talked, it didn't sound like that Amu was talking about him.

"Tell me more about... this guy," He ventured to say. Amu smiled slightly, but it was enough to get Ikuto's desire to fire up again. He threw is arms around Amu, pulling her closer to him and pressed his face into her hair, inhaling the strawberry smell. Ikuto was relieved that it was enough... for now.

"This guy," Amu mumbled. "I haven't known him very long. I remember that when I first met him, I _hated _him. I honestly had no idea why I had anything to do with this guy. I thought he was the worse guy on the planet... always making fun of me and everything. And then..."

"And then what?" Ikuto encouraged her on, his hope that Amu was talking about him slowly fading.

"And then there was this incident," Amu continued, a small amount of sadness beginning to fill up her voice. "After that I realized that I loved him, and I began to realize that he was actually a great guy. He would always be in the background, just keeping me company and helping me out. But you know what the sad part is? Even though I've been secretly thankful and enjoying everything he's done for me, I continued to act like I hated him. I continued to pretend that I didn't care about him..."

She let out a hard laugh.

"But it's too late now," She said. "I missed my chance, and now he'll probably always just think of me as just that random girl he used to bug."

Ikuto was silent for a moment.

"Who..." He hesitated mid-question. "Is this guy?"

Amu lowered her head so it was next to Ikuto's ear.

"I _want _to tell you," She murmured into his hear. "But I can't. Ikuto-kun probably knows a lot of people, and I can't risk it accidentally getting out to _anyone. _Plus, Amu-chan's too tired."

She lifted up her head again and yawned hugely. Amu closed her eyes and curled up in Ikuto's arms.

"Good night, Ikuto-kun," She whispered quietly before falling alseep. Ikuto watched her as she slept peacefully, feeling a new kind of pain beginning to form inside him.

_I did _that_ to her... and I doubt she even likes me.. what type of person am I?_

Ikuto subconciously pressed Amu closer to him and drifted off to asleep.

*****

Amu sleepily opened her eyes. For a minute or so, she thought she was in her own room. She reached out, trying to find her cell phone so she could check what time it was. But, instead of her fingers coming into contact with hard plastic, all she felt was warm skin.

This was unusual to her, to say the least.

Amu blinked a couple of times, the world coming into focus. She wasn't in her room at all. Or even in the last place she remembered thinking clearly, the mall with Ikuto, Rima, and Nagihiko. No, she was in her room at Ikuto's house where she had apparently fallen asleep... with her head on Tsukiyomi Ikuto's chest, no less. Amu looked around her, and then realized the position she and Ikuto were in.

"P... P-PERVERT!"

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**Next chapter comes out whenever. Don't forget to review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you Amuto20174, sylvanicara, EmikoHoshiko, iheartanime43, xxxUtauloverxxx, mikohoshina, NyammiToast, Luna-chan926, KiNoMoTo18, laurikmariuk, xhappily-randomx, Kaggi101, sakuita, , and amutoamuikutosydney for reviewing :D**

**I finally got to a hundred reviews! And considering there weren't even 10 chapters, that's actually _very _fast in my opinion. It's kind of strange how for all of the chapters except for the one that I asked about which should be drunk, I got exactly 15 reviews, yet each time most of the reviewers except for a couple were different! I find that kind of strange yet cool.**

**________________________________________**

Ikuto awoke with a start, surprised by Amu's screaming.Amu glared at him.

"W-what happened last n-night?!" She demanded. Ikuto shrugged.

"Some retard at the store you bought the drinks at switched your coke and some beer," He told her. "You were acting really drunk for the rest of the night"

Amu's eyes widened in horror.

"Did I do anything strange?" She whispered quietly. Ikuto smirked.

"Let's just say that it would make my level of perverted-ness seem normal," He said. Amu glared at him and blushed as she folded her arms over her chest.

"I bet you were doing all sorts of perverted things to me," She muttered. "Not my fault."

Ikuto raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Right," He said sarcastically. Amu gasped as he pointed to her leg, which was still wrapped tightly around Ikuto, and half of her boyd was still ontop of Ikuto's.

"Explain to me how that's my fault," He said. Amu's blush deepened.

"You tell me!" She screamed. "You were the one that actually knew what was going on! Now tell me what I did."

Ikuto grinned.

"Guess."

Amu glared at him, her head beginning to fill with every perverted thing Ikuto could've done to her.

"Harassment?"

"No. I save that for when you're sane."

"Kiss?"

"We didn't." Ikuto decided he would tell her only when she honestly needed to know.

"Did we...."

"Did we what?"

"... did we... do... it?"

"..."

"IKUTO!?"

"Sadly, no."

"Was I raped?"

"Nope."

"Tell you all my secrets?"

Ikuto hesitated.

"That was happened, wasn't it?" Amu asked, glad to have figured it out.

Ikuto reluctantly nodded.

"What did I say?" Amu asked nervously. Ikuto gently untangled himself from Amu's leg and truned so his back was facing her.

"Nothing important," He muttered, obviously irritaed with the whole topic. Amu stared at him sadly, fearing whatever she said that would make him this upset. She was about to apologize to him for anything she said but was interupted by her phone ringing.

"Hello?" She said.

"Onee-chan!"

Amu laughed.

"Ami?"

"Yup!" Said her little sisters happy, high-pitched tone.

"Why are you calling?" Amu asked.

"Because Mama said we're coming home soon!"

Amu heard her mom take the phone from Ami.

"She's right," Her mom said happily. "We're taking the next flight back home, so we should be back either tonight or early tomorrow morning."

"That's great!" Amu exclaimed, trying her best to sound happy. "So I'll see you soon!"

They said their goodbyes and Amu hung up the phone. She sighed as her smile slowly faded from her face.

"So I'm guessing that you're going to have to go home?" Ikuto spoke up. He was silent as he listened to the whole phone conversation.

"I guess," Amu said. "It's not like I can just continue staying here while my parents are at home."

Ikuto nodded and grinned.

"I'm going to miss bothering you," He teased. Amu jumped up from the bed, cheeks redder than ever.

"S-Shut up!" She yelled. Ikuto stood up and shrugged.

"Whatever," He said, walking out of the room. "Tell me when you're done packing. I'll walk you back."

Amu stared at him, concerned, as he walked out of the room without sending her even a glance. She sighed and began half-heartedly throwing her clothes back into the bag.

*****

Amu picked up her bag and stood in front of Ikuto's room. The door was closed, and she raised her hand to knock on it. Just as her hand was about to collide with the door, Amu froze. There was a song playing on the other side. It was quiet, barely loud enough for Amu to make out the faint words.

_Why... have I fallen for you?  
No matter how much time passes,  
I thought you would always be here.  
But, you chose a different road._

Amu closed her eyes as she listened to the sweet song, suddenly overwhelmed by the truth it held for her.

_Why wasn't I able to convey it to you?  
My feelings that were growing every day and night.  
The words began to overflow  
But now I know that they won't reach you._

_From the day I met you  
I felt like I knew you...  
The two of us had melted together so naturally-_

The song was suddenly cut off, and Amu heard the door open. She opened her eyes and saw a bored-looking Ikuto standing in the doorway.

"You ready?" He asked quietly. Amu noddedand followed Ikuto down the stairs. Just as they were about to leave, a voice interupted their silence.

"Ikuto? Amu-chan?"

The two of them turned around and saw Ikuto's mom standing behind them. She eyed the bag in Amu's hand and the empty faces of Amu and Ikuto and fear flashed across her face.

"Amu's..." She began. "Leaving?"

Her head snaped up and she glared at Ikuto.

"What did you do to her?!" She demanded. "Right when I was so thankful that you finally got a girlfriend and then you make her leave?"

"Tsukiyomi-san," Amu cut in, plastering a fake smile on her face. "Ikuto-kun didn't make me leave. I just have to go home. There was a...uh... a family emergency!"

Ikuto's mom smiled brightly.

"Well that makes it a lot better!" She said cheerfully. "Hope whatever happened get better?"

Amu nodded, cheesy smile still intact, and she quickly walked with Ikuto out of the house.

*****

Ikuto stopped in front of Amu's house. He turned to face her.

"You know," He said. "You don't have to pretend to be my girlfriend anymore if you don't want to. I'll think up of something for my parents."

Amu looked shocked.

"Why would I all of a suddenly not want to?" She asked. "Maybe I _want _to. No one's forcing me to do anything."

Ikuto shrugged.

"Just saying," He told her.

_Stupid... if you want someone else, then I don't want to be the one stopping you from it._

Amu stared at him.

"Ikuto," She said. "I-"

She cut herself off suddenly.

_I love you... but I don't have the courage to let you know..._

Ikuto stared at her strangely.

"I-I mean," She stuttered, feeling her cheeks heat up again. "Even though I have absolutely no idea I said last night, but since it looks like it pissed you off so much, I'll apologize for it."

Ikuto smiled sadly.

"It's not your fault," He told her, bending down and wrapping his arms around her. "If you're fine with it, come visit soon so I can do this some more."

He bent his head over and gently nibbledon her ear. Amu screamed.

"PERVERT!" She yelled before running into the house and slamming the door behind her. Ikuto chuckled lightly before turning around and heading back.

*****Few hours later*****

Amu was curled up on the couch, waiting for her parents to come home any minute. They were supposed to be home a while back, but she didn't worry about it too TV was on quietly in the background, and she stared out of her window at the cloudy gray sky. Amu jumped slightly as there was a loud clap of thunder, and rain began to fall heavily against her window, making loud thumps as it hit the window. She frowned.

_I hope this won't cause them too much trouble...._

Amu turned her attention back to the TV, which was showing the news.

"Everyone, we have just gotten hold of some tragic news," The reporter said. "There has been a terrible plane crash in the Tokyo Airport."

Amu lunged for the remote and turned up the volume, eyes glued to the TV.

"It was because of this horrid thunderstorm," The reporter continued. "Apparently the plane was struck by lightning just as it was landing, causing a massive fire. As of now there are no discovered survivors of the crash."

Amu watched in shock as the TV played a live clip of rescue-workers and firefighters carrying limp bodies out of the plane. A certain group of workers carrying a man, a woman, and a little girl's body out of the bright flames contrasting greatly with the quickly darkening sky. Amu could barely hear what the reporter said next as she dropped the remote, her eyes glazed over in shock.

*****

Ikuto sat in the dining room, watching the news out of pure boredom. Even though Amu had only been gone for a couple of hours, he felt as if there was nothing to do anymore since there was no one he could tease constantly. Ikuto turned his interest back to the TV, not that he really cared about what was going on. Just something about a recent plane crash.

"Workers are beginning to be able to identify some of the dead bodies from the wreckage," The reporter said. "However, the only ones we are positive right now is an unfortunate family of three."

Ikuto watched carefully as the screen began to flash images of the three. Something about them was really familiar.

"These three have been idenfied as the Hinamori family," The reporter continued. "Our records from the government say that there was also one more daughter in this family, but she has either not been found yet, or she just wasn't on this plane. Either way, we grieve for this family, wherever the last daughter may be."

"Funny," Ikuto's mom, who had been standing behind Ikuto, said. "Isn't your cute little girlfriend's last name Hinamori?"

Ikuto didn't hear her; he had bolted out the front door and was running towards Amu's house.

_Amu.. I don't care if I'm not the one that you care about. I don't care if I'm probably get sick from running in this heck of a lot of rain... Just something tells me that you need someone right now..._

**______**

**Don't forget to review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you Hime Cullen Tsukiyomi, Amuto-4eva, Amuto20174, xhappily-randomx, xxxUtauloverxxx, NekoBerryKisses, xiiaoICEangel, iheartanime43, tenko12, ichiruki12741, XYNDiCATE, Natsuya801923, Luna-cha926, carlaivy, Shokara N' Strawberries, mikohoshina, Kit2000, Flower of Hell, sylvanicara, Bella-n-Edward4Eternity, sakuita, .i', maximumchrisyt, ShinyVolvoOwner, KiNoMoTo18, and anifreak o.O for reviewing!**

**Wow... 26 reviews for 1 chapter... that's the most I've ever gotten probably.**

**Not much dialogue since for half the story... one of the only two people in the chapter is asleep ._.**

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A panting Ikuto leaned against one of the supports on Amu's front porch to catch his breath for a moment, his wet hair clinging on to his face. He had just made it from his house to Amu's, which was on the other side of the city, in less than 10 minutes.

He quietly knocked on the front door. No one answered. Ikuto slowly walked around the house, looking to see if there was any other way to get in. He saw a balcony on the second floor, and quickly climbed up a tree and hopped lightly onto the balcony. Luckily, the door there had been left wide open.

Ikuto slipped in and quietly slid the door close behind him, scanning the room for a certain pinkette. He heard a small sniff coming from under the covers of the bed. Lifting the covers up, Ikuto saw Amu with her face pressed into a pillow, silent sobs roughly shaking her small shoulders.

"They're gone," She murmured into her pillow, completely oblivious to the fact that Ikuto was watching her. "...And they're not going to come back..."

What made Ikuto do what he did next was still uknown to Ikuto himself. When he 'woke up' from his trance, he was kneeling down ontop of Amu's bed, gently holding the crying girl in his arms. Amu slowly opened her eyes and realized what was going on.

"I-Ikuto..." She mumbled quietly, not looking at his face. "It's okay... really. You don't have to stay here. You're parents aren't even near here... so there's no need to... pretend..."

Ikuto looked her, seeing an expression that he had never seen in anyone before. It was something beyond sadness and pain mixed together; almost haunted-looking. It was as if Amu was just an emotionless ghost or something. Amu lightly tried to push herself out of Ikuto's hold.

"Really," She muttered. "Don't waste your time here."

Ikuto only tightened his grasp.

"Maybe I want to stay here," He said simply. "Maybe I'm not pretending. Maybe I really want to help."

Amu opened her mouth, intending to aplogize for making him stay-- to tell him that he shouldn't feel obligated to waste his night here just because she was a little (or very) upset and was crying, that he could be somewhere else, having fun. Instead, it all came rushing to the surface. All the sadness and frustration she had been holding down, trying to figure out Ikuto's recent change of emotions, pretending to hate him when she really loved him, and coping with her family's death. All the messy emotions she had tried her best to wall away came blasting through. She burst into tears, starting a new round of louder, heavier sobs.

All Ikuto could do was wrap his arms around her shoulders and pulled her warm body closer to his, occasionally patting her comfortingly as she buried her face into his chest and soaked his shirt with her tears.

*****

After a couple of hours, Amu had finally managed to cry herself to sleep. Ikuto, who was also beginning to doze off, woke up when he noticed that the noise from the sobs has died down. He looked at Amu, still pressed against him. She looked pretty peaceful, like any normal sleeping girl, except for the occasional tear sliding down her face every now and then.

Ikuto carassed her soft face gently for a moment before setting her back down on the bed, intending to leave right afterwards so he wouldn't bother her. As he stood up to leave, however, something pulled him back.

Ikuto turned around and saw Amu, still fast asleep, but with her fist wrapped tightly around the edge of his shirt. He figured she must have grabbed on to it while she was crying and just.. never let go.

He bent down next to Amu's bed and attempted to pry her hand off so he could leave. Amu only tightened her grip and mumbled something incoherent as she tossed and turned her head on the bed. Ikuto sighed. He was probably going to be stuck here until Amu decided wake up and let go of his shirt.

Ikuto looked around the room, looking for somewhere he could sleep that was in range of Amu's arm. There was no way he was going to sleep on the same bed as her, consiering her reaction last time he tried that. He saw one of those light pink beanbag-chairs laying next to the bed. Ikuto sat on that, leaning against the bed fram and resting his head on a tiny corner of Amu's pillow that was hanging off the edge of the bed. He gave one last look at Amu, who had now had a small, yet sad smile adorning her cute face. Suddenly, a wave of tiredness and exhaustion that Ikuto had never noticed had been there before came over him. He was alseep within seconds.

Almost as soon as Ikuto was asleep, Amu's hand released it's hold, and slipped into one of Ikuto's open hands.

*****

Amu slowly awoke the next morning, squinting against the bright sunlight streaming in through the windows. She sat up quickly as she slowly looked around her room. Everything looked normal: clothes thrown _around _the closet instead of _in _them, various pieces of junk laying around on the floor, cute yet perverted guy staring at her... wait, what?! Amu stared in shock at Ikuto, who was watching her carefully with flickers of concern in his eyes.

"Ikuto...?" She trailed off. Ikuto got up stiffly from the position he was sitting in and plopped down on the bed next to Amu.

"This bed is a lot softer than the ground," He muttered, closing his eyes for a moment. Amu stared at him, wide-eyed.

"What were you doing on the ground?" She asked curiously. Ikuto opened his eyes again and smirked, but there was a new, almost hidden, softness in the curl to his lips.

"After you fell asleep, I was going to leave. But, when I was going to, I found out that a certain _someone_was grabbing on to my shirt," He said, causing Amu to blush slightly. "So, that's how I ended up staying here the whole night."

Amu stared at him.

"Why'd you sleep on the floor?" The confused girl asked. "If you really think that the bed is more comfortable than the floor, then why didn't you just sleep on the bed?"

Ikuto laughed.

"And risk being yelled at the next morning until I go deaf?" He teased. "I'd rather not."

Amu bit her lip and looked away, beginning to feel slightly guilty for yelling at Ikuto last time the two of them had shared the same bed. Ikuto looked at her, his expression softening.

"Speaking of last night," He said gently. "How you feeling?"

Amu's heart sank as she remembered the events. She frowned.

"I've been better," She said softly. "But I have a feeling that I'll get better... just.. not now."

Ikuto smiled kindly at her.

"I"m glad," He said, snaking his arms around Amu and pressing her soft body closer to his. He rested his head on her shoulder.

"Just so you know," He said quietly. Amu could feel his warm breath blowing onto her ear. "No matter what, I'll always be here for you. Even if it looks like I don't really care, I'll be there. Your family aren't the only people that care about your feelings."

Amu turned around to beam at him gratefully. Then she leaned upwards to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Thanks," She whispered. "For everything. For staying here the whole time, and for saying that. You really made last night a lot more bearable."

Ikuto barely heard a word she said, he was in too much shock as his fingers lingered around the now warm spot that Amu kissed him on. Even though it was really light and fast, he enjoyed every moment of it. Ikuto finally noticed that Amu was still sitting there, staring at him, and he smirked at her.

"You know," He said. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that."

A flash of confusion flashed across Amu's face.

"Well," She began slowly, "What do you-mmph!'

Ikuto stopped her with a long kiss on the mouth. His arms reached around her and brought her even closer, so that her body was pressed tightly against his. Amu was extremely aware of the pressure of his palm against her back. The kiss was moist and had its own rhythm and lasted and lasted. Amu feared the sound of her heart pounding in her ears would be the cause of if she ever went deaf. When Ikuto pulled back, Amu saw that he was grinning again, but there was a glimmer of content on his face.

"That," Ikuto said. "Was a good thank you."

His serene smile quickly faded into a look of horror as he saw Amu's shocked face, her chest rising and falling quickly as she panted. Her eyes were so wide, Ikuto was surprised they haven't burst out of their sockets yet. He inwardly slapped himself.

_Baka! Remember the last time you kissed her, when she was drunk, you promised youerself that you would _never _do that again. And now look what happens when you forget and kiss her again? She probably hates you now!_

"A-amu?" Ikuto called out tentatively. After a couple of seconds, he still didn't get a response. Ikuto stared worriedly at the pinkette in his arms, still staring at him with a shocked, unblinking gaze.

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**Don't forget to review! I have to admit, this was by far the easiest chapter for me to right, since, personally, the same thing had just happened to me a little while ago... only not exact. Certain peoples that were close to me died, so the feelings of pain are still fresh in my memory, and this guy that I had known for a while yet I never realized I had _loved_ came to comfort me when there was no one else. So yea... I'm feeling all warm and happy (yet still sad) on the inside. REVIEW IF YOU WANT MY GOOD MOOD TO STAY LIKE THIS.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you iheartanime43, sylvanicara, Amuto20174, maximumchrisyt, xhappily-randomx, carlaivy, Emiko-Hoshiko, ShinyVolvoOwner, Natsuya189023, anifreak o.O, Kit2000, yumi-echizen, Flower of Hell, xiiaoICEangel, Luna-chan926, Shokara N' Strawberries, FlareKnight, xSakura, laurikmariuk, and appupuppu for reviewing!**

**Since so many of you have been asking, yes I did find the guts to tell that guy that I love him. And now I'm officially taken 3**

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Ikuto stared at Amu with a worried expression.

"Amu?" He asked again, griipping her shoulders tightly and shaking her to check if she was still alive and concious. Amu rapidly blinked a few times.

"Huh...?" She trailed off, slightly dazed. She let out a small laugh as realization dawned upon her. Ikuto's concern grew deeper as he watched her giggle.

"You okay?" He asked hesitantly. Amu smiled a little bit and nodded.

"I'm fine," She assured him. "I was just a bit... _shocked._ I mean, I wasn't exactly expecting that, and it kind of surprised me because it felt a bit... familiar. Almost as if this has happened before."

Ikuto didn't know exactly why he decided on this, but he decided at that very moment that he wasn't going to tell Amu about their actual 'first kiss' anytime soon.

Amu stared at him, feeling as if she still hasn't properly thanked him yet. She felt that Ikuto deserved something more than a quick kiss for making one of the worst nights of her life slightly bearable.

"Hey... Ikuto," She said suddenly, causing Ikuto to abruptly look up from the pattern on the floor that he was observing and look back at her. "If you could have one wish, what would it be?"

Ikuto looked at her with sad eyes.

"That's a secret," He said simply, quickly averting his gaze from Amu so she couldn't see his pain.

_Baka.. my wish was that you would love me as much as I love you. But, there's no point in telling you since I'm not... the one... that you... love..._

Amu stared at him, frustratedly thinking about why he wouldn't tell her. It wasn't like she was going to tell everyone or laugh and scream about it. Unless... it was something extremely perverted. Amu blushed lightly at the thought of it.

After a couple of minutes, a heavy and uncomfortable silence fell between the two of them. Amu stole a quick glance at the window and her clock, since she had just realized that she hadn't looked at either since she had gotten up. Apparently it was already 8:00, and the sun was already starting to set with a light rain beginning to fall. Amu frowned. Had she really slept that long? Maybe she was able to sleep better because Ikuto was there with her.

Amu turned around and saw Ikuto also gazing out the window. Suddenly, he stood up, walking towards the door that led to Amu's balcony.

"Wait!" Amu called out, her eyes filled with hurt. "You're leaving?"

Ikuto nodded sadly, staring at the ground instead of the sad pinkette sitting comfortably on the bed.

"Why..?" The hurt question barely came out as more than a whisper. Ikuto turned to look at her, his eyes full of pain.

"That night you were drunk," He explained quietly. "You told me that there was a guy that you loved so mjuch. You said that he was always there when you needed him..."

Ikuto bit his lip, realizing that that was exactly what he had promised Amu he would do for her earlier. He took a deep breath.

"Anyways," He continued in an even quieter tone. "Since it looks like that you need someone right now, I'm going. I don't want to be around whenever he shows up."

Ikuto said that last part rather coldly. Amu realized that this was what was irritating Ikuto this whole time.

Next thing Amu knew, she saw Ikuto hurrying out the door. Amu wasted no time in bolting after him. By the time she was out on the balcony, Ikuto was already climbing over the balcony raliing, preparing to jump over onto the ground.

Amu ran over to him and flung her arms around his torso just in time. She buried her face into his back.

"Ikuto..." She said in a muffled tone, tears threatening to fall from her eyes again. "What if... w-what if... what if that person I was talking about was you?"

Amu felt him stiffen a noticeable amount as a small gasp came out of his mouth. In a second, Ikuto whipped around and used his hands to lilft up Amu's face so he could look into her tear-stained eyes.

"Did you mean that?" He whispered, too shocked to speak up any louder.

"Every word of it," Amu said in an equally soft tone. Ikuto smiled, and then planted his lips on hers.

The kiss was very different from last time; Amu could feel it. Ikuto give it a 'This is officially mine now and no one else can take it.' feel, while Amu gave it a more gentle and soft side. The combination of both made it the perfect kiss, at least in their opinions. And this time, both Amu and Ikuto enjoyed the moments the kiss lasted with all of their hearts.

The two of them continued like that for a while, ignoring the rain falling gently onto their backs. Suddenly there was a loud clap of thunder, causing Amu to let out a small yelp and jump closer to Ikuto. Ikuto looked down at her, smirking.

"So you're scared of thunder?" He teased, but he slid his arms protectively around her. Amu looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes, and nodded. Ikuto chuckled a little bit before picking her up and carrying her back into the house.

*****

Ikuto and Amu curled up together on Amu's bed; both having changed into dry clothes. Amu was in a different set of pajamas while Ikuto was borrowing an old shirt of Amu's dad's.

Ikuto was resting his head on Amu's flast stomach while Amu absent–mindedly figered his hair, occasionally jumping when she heard a clap of thunder outside.

"Ikuto.." Amu said slowly, stretching out his name so she could feel the way it rolled off her tounge. "Do you think you could.. stay here tonight? Normally, my little sister, Ami, would come in almost every night and sleep here because she had a bad dream or something. Now she's... gone... and I don't really want to be here alone..."

Amu was cut off short by Ikuto, who had sat up and was now kissing away the tears Amu didn't know she had shed while mentioning her little sister. Once he was done, Ikuto looked down at her and smiled.

"Stay here because you miss your sister?" He asked. "Or stay here because this thunder is beginning to freak you out?"

As if right on cue, the thunder rumbled loudly outside. Amu sqeaked and jumped into Ikuto's open, waiting arms.

"I guess a little bit of both," She admitted, beginning to blush again as she pressed her head into his chest. Ikuto smiled softly at her.

"I'll stay," He told her. "But only because you've been laying off on the 'Ikuto's a pervert!' thing lately. Plus you gave me my wish."

Amu looked at him, confused.

"That's because I'm not in the mood for screaming at a pervert right now," She said, causing Ikuto to smirk widely. "And you didn't tell me what your wish was. How could I have given it to you?"

Ikuto grinned and pressed Amu against the wall, placing his hands on the wall on either side of her head.

"Then I'll tell you now," He said. "My wish was for you to love me."

Amu looked at him, a smile forming on the neds of her lips.

"I love you, Ikuto," She announced loudly. Ikuto gaped at her.

"Do you know," He said, leaning his face extremely close to Amu's. "How badly I've wanted you to say that?"

Amu didn't answer. She tangled her fingers in Ikuto's hair and pulled him closer so that their lips were touching again. After a minute, Ikuto pulled away for air.

"Now look who's perverted," He teased. Amu raised her hand to slap him, but Ikuto grabbed it and pinned it back on her side before leaning back in again.

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**Ew it looks so short :\ only 2 and some lines pages of arial narrow 10.5 T_T normally it's about 4 pages. But the word count says that it's about 14OO + some random number words. Oh well!**

**REVIEW. LIKE... NOW.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you Luna-chan926, FlareKnight, xSakura, maximumchrisyt, xhappily-randomx, Natsuya801923, iheartanime43, appupuppu, yumi-echizen, IkutosGirl, sylvanicara, ichiruki12741, xxxUtauloverxxx, carlaivy, RyuRi, Evee-san, Kit2000, and iluvyoumorethancupcakes for reviewing!**

**At this point I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to end this story. Just this morning, while I was daydreaming after finishing my history final, I decided to erase the original ending I had planned out of my brain and replace it with a totally new idea I thought of in about five minutes. Personally, I think the new ending is a lot better than the old ending... the old ending involved Amu dying of some sort of lung cancer :\ whereas the new ending keeps her alive... kind of. We'll see. The problem is, I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to end it anymore... hopefully keeping Amu alive of course :D**

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-One week later-

_Lots of things had happened in the past week. Ikuto had unofficially moved into Amu's house, seeming that Amu had begged him to stay almost every night. The two of them had grown a lot closer during that time. Occasionally, Amu would still have those random moments where she would wake up sobbing about her parents and sister... hence the reason why she had Ikuto stay with her. She felt better with him around._

_As for the debt of the Hinamori family, Ikuto took care of that (… Or he just wrote a gigantic check to the people the Hinamori's owed money to). If you add up all the money that had been left to Amu, plus the money Ikuto paid her for the days she was his fake girlfriend, she had money to get her family a proper funeral and still have some money left over. This made Amu eternally gratefully to Ikuto.. who only asked in return for Amu to never cheat on him._

*****

Amu stood by the door, a fake smile plastered on her face, as she watched the people who attended her family's funeral slowly exit out the large doors of the church and talked with each other on the front lawn. Once she was sure that no one was paying attention to her anymore, her smile faded into a frown.

To be honest with herself, and as much as she knew this was necessary, she wished that the funeral wasn't needed. She hated the whole depressing mood of the whole thing. She hated all the looks of pity that she got from the friends of her family. She hated the black dress she was in.

Not really, in truth she thought the dress was actually very pretty. It was black and went a little past her knees. There where white ribbons on the collar and the hem of the dress. But, the dress was extremely itchy... which she hated.

And worst of all, she hated the fact that Ikuto wasn't here... here when she needed him. Ikuto had told her that there was something important planned already for today, but he had generously offered to postpone it for a more convenient time.

Of course, Amu had told him not to, since she already felt guilty for making him stay at her house for a majority of the week. Plus, Ikuto had already promised that he would be able to show up, and at the time Amu thought that that would be good enough for her.

Amu sighed, clearly regretting that decision now. She wished so badly that he was here. Here so that it would've been easier for her to ignore all those sympathetic stares she got while she was crying her eyes out during the funeral. Amu wasn't one of those people that liked being stared at or felt sorry for.

As if right on cue, a pair of arms twined around her waist and pulled her against a hard body,

"Ikuto!" She screamed, turning around to look at his smirking face. "You scared the heck out of me!"

Ikuto's smirk grew deeper.

"Who else would be grabbing you like this?" He asked teasingly.

"Pervert..." Amu muttered as she snuggled closer to him.

"It's _your _pervert," He corrected,causing Amu to blush. Ikuto drew her closer and gave her a lingering kiss.

"Really. Sorry that I didn't come," Ikuto said apologetically, frowning. Amu glared at him.

"Stop apologizing!" She complained. "I was the one that told you not to cancel whatever it was that was so important to you to do."

Ikuto shrugged, leaning against the wall of the church. Amu stood next to him, resting her head on his chest. She sighed as she scanned the crowd around them, feeling a numbness overcome her. Ikuto looked at her, concerned.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Amu looked up at him.

"I miss them..." She whispered. "I miss them so much..."

Ikuto tightened his arms around her.

"It'll get better," He said gently. "And I'll be waiting for the day you're happy again."

Amu smiled sadly and closed her eyes, relaxing in Ikuto's warm embrace. Ikuto sighed in relief as he felt her shoulders visibly drop from their stiff and tense position into a more relaxed mode.

Amu as slightly startled as she felt a finger tap her shoulder. She jumped up and turned around to see who did it. Behind her, she saw a woman accompanied by her son, who was about the same age as Amu. Amu recognized the two immediately.

"Suzuki-san. Ryuu-kun," She acknowledged the two of them warmly. Ikuto frowned as he saw Amu's fake smile pop up again on her face. He hated it when Amu pretended to be like this.

"Long time no see, Amu-chan," Suzuki-san replied. "And I'm so sorry about what happened. Your mom was like a little sister to me; it was a real sudden shock to everyone."

Amu only nodded sadly. Ikuto nudged her with his arm gently, his facial expression clearly asking 'and these are whom...?'

"Oh, gomen!" Amu said. "I forgot to introduce you guys!"

She motioned to Suzuki-san and Ryuu.

"Ikuto," She explained. "These are Suzuki Yumiko and Ryuu. They were really close friends of my family." She switched so that she was now pointing at Ikuto. "Suzuki-san, Ryuu-kun. This is Tsukiyomi Ikuto, my boyfriend."

Suzuki-san smiled at Amu warmly.

"Well then," She said. "You and Ryuu might want some time to catch up, and maybe he'll want to meet Tsukiyomi-san. So I'll leave you three alone then."

With that, Suzuki-san left. Ryuu grinned at Amu.

"Long time no see, Amu-chan," He said cheerfully. Ikuto glared at him.

"She's _mine,_" Ikuto said, giving Ryuu the 'mine' face. Ryuu laughed.

"Don't worry," He assured him. "I'm actually really happy for you guys. I don't really intend on being anything more than Amu's childhood best friend. Right, Amu-chan?"

Amu grinned at them both.

"That's right," She said to Ikuto. "Ryuu-kun used to live in the house right across the street from mine. We were best friends until he and his parents moved away."

Ikuto nodded in understanding. There was nothing to get jealous of, right? Ryuu smiled expectantly at Ikuto.

"Tsukiyomi-san," He said. "Since you now know, would it be okay with me giving Amu-chan a quick hug, just for old time's sake?"

Ikuto hesitated.

"Fine," He agreed stiffly, clearly not enjoying this one bit. Ryuu gave Amu a hug, an extremely quick hug. It was over before Ikuto even noticed that it began. This made Ikuto feel better just a little bit, but it still irritated him. Amu snuggled back next to Ikuto after the hug. Ryuu looked at Ikuto's slightly pissed face.

"Seriously," He said, no hint of teasing present on his face. "She's all yours. I'm actually happy for you; for having such a wonderful girl. She's great."

Ikuto relaxed a bit. He sounded honest enough. And it wasn't like he needed someone else to tell him that Amu was wonderful.

The three of them began chatting aimlessly with each other, talking about nothing really in particular. In short they basically learned a lot more about each other.

Sooner or later, Suzuki-san appeared again. Amu had just realized that they had been standing there talking for a very long time; the sun was beginning to set, leaving a beautiful pink / orange color in the sky. She leaned against Ikuto, enjoying the captivating sky for a moment.

"Amu-chan," Suzuki-san said gently, pulling Amu out of her thoughts. "It's getting late. You ready to go yet? I have the car waiting."

Amu tilted her head to one side in confusion.

"What do you mean...?" She asked. "Aren't I walking home? I live, like, about 10 minutes from here walking."

Suzuki-san let out a tinkling laugh and shook her head.

"No," She corrected. "Your living with Ryuu-kun and me now!"

Amu heard Ikuto gasp from behind her, and she visibly paled.

"Why?" She asked as politely as she could. She was so shocked the question barely came out as a whisper. Suzuki -san shook her head again.

"Did you ever get a look at your parents will?" She wondered aloud. "It said that if something like this happened, you were to go to move in with the relatives or friends of the family that lived closest to where you do. And that would be us, honey."

"No..." Amu and Ikuto whispered at the same time, Ikuto tightening his grip on Amu. Amu was to shocked to say anything or move. Yes, it was true that the Suzuki's house was the closest to Amu, but that was still about eight cities away.

Which was about a four hour drive.

Which was too far for her to see Ikuto as often as she did now.

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**Review please! Seeing each and every one of your reviews makes me happier, even though I'm too lazy of an ass to reply to most of them.**

**Still, seriously. Review. I think I burned my brain out during these coupe of days of finals, and reading your reviews would help me relax a bit.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thank you iheartanime43, sylvanicara, FlareKnight, Luna-chan926, Natusya801923, ichiruki12741, Amuto20174, carlaivy, Kit2000, xxxUtauloverxxx, appupuppu, Shokara N' Strawberries, xSakura, BlueAmuto, xhappily-randomx, sakuita, anifreak o.O, and xBlackCat for reviewing.**

**Okay, last time I thought I'd made myself clear, but apparently I didn't. Suzuki is Ryuu's _mom_, not some kid the same age as them. Let's go back to last chapter, shall we?:**

"_**... Behind her, she saw a WOMAN accompained by her SON, who was about the same age as AMU..."**_

**So that means Ryuu and Amu are the same age. Suzuki must be older than them, meaning that Suzuki-san is an OLD. FAGGY. LADY. GOT IT?! … I think I just spazzed out a bit... whatever. Hope that clears things up.**

**And I just realized that Suzuki was a car brand. My mom's been driving a Suzuki for most of my life and I still haven't realized it. Thanks to Amuto20174, who pointed that out!**

**... also sorry for lack of update. I planned to update earlier, but last night I think I came down with something and ended up sleeping 14 hours :O God my stomach hurts even when I try to sit up straight T____T So forgive me if you guys spot any errors. + The story might not make any sense in some parts. My head hurts too. But I love writing so I didn't exactly want to stop and go rest again. When you wake up and find out that more than half your day is already gone because you were sick and tired, you really feel like you want to stay up for the remainder of the day and get everything you planned to do done.**

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Ikuto pulled his arms out from around Amu and stood protectively in front of her.

"No." He said firmly. Suzuki-san smiled and turned to Amu, completely ignoring Ikuto's existance.

"What do you think of this, Amu-chan?" She asked sweetly. Amu bit her lip.

"Actually," She admitted. "I don't want to go against what my parents want."

She earned a gasp from Ikuto. Amu turned and gave him a look that said 'Shut it. I'm not done yet.'

"But I don't want to leave Ikuto, either," She continued. "Maybe we could all go down to the lawyer's office. He has a copy of my parents will, and I want to see exactly what's written before I decide."

Ikuto was surprised at Amu. Just a little while ago she sounded like she was going to break down crying, and now she sounded totally calm, as if this was a casual thing that happened everyday.

"Actually," He cut in. "I wouldn't mind seeing it either."

_There's a loophole in everything written by a lawyer. There has to be one here._

"Same," Ryuu agreed. Suzuki-san sighed.

"Ryuu," She complained. "If Amu won't go with us tonight, then we'll have no where to stay for tonight. We can't exactly go back home without her, and all the hotels around here are booked."

Amu smiled.

"You can stay at my place," She suggested. Suzuki-san and Ryuu grinned.

"Arigatou!" Suzuki-san said cheerfully. "Now let's head over to that lawyer's office. Amu, our car's this way."

"No way," Ikuto growled. "She's going to go in my car. How do I know you won't just drive away with her?"

Suzuki-san raised an eyebrow.

"How do I know you won't?" She challenged. Ikuto glared at her.

"If I wanted to take her home with me," He said slowly, as if he were speaking to a five year old. "I wouldn't be going very far, would I? I live here too, remember?"

Suzuki-san glared at him.

"Fine," She snapped. "But if you _do _decide to go off with her, I'll personally come and take her back home with me, whether you agree or not."

Ikuto nodded stiffly before practically dragging Amu back to his car. Once Amu was seated in the passenger seat and Ikuto climbed into the driver's seat, he leaned his head back onto the seat and let out a frustrated groan.

"Amu..." He said in a low, pained voice. "I'm staying at your house tonight. There's no way I'm leaving you alone with... _them._ How could you let them stay at your house?!"

Ikuto turned and saw Amu smiling slightly at him.

"That was my plan all along," She whispered. "I knew you would want to stay if they stayed. I felt bad about begging you to stay every night, so I thought I'd try getting you to volunteer to do it for once."

Ikuto sat up and smirked.

"Smart," He said in a jokingly approving voice. "Now let's get going. I don't want Suzuki-san stalking me for the rest of eternity."

For the first time ever, Ikuto heard Amu laugh. As in really laugh. It wasn't a 'I'm just going to laugh now because I don't want anyone thinking I'm unhappy' laugh. It was a real genuine laugh. And Ikuto loved the sound of it. Her laugh sounded beautiful, like a tinkling bell. He grinned softly and silently made a vow to make her laugh every day for the rest of her life, just so he could hear the beautiful and melodious sound. Ikuto started the car and followed the Suzuki's car, now feeling twice as confident in his ability to find a way to keep Amu here with him.

*****

The Suzuki's were already parked in front of the lawyer's office by the time Ikuto got there. As he and Amu got out, Suzuki-san eyed Ikuto's car with a smirk on her face.

"Is there a problem?" Ikuto asked in the most polite voice he could. Suzuki-san grinned.

"It's funny," She said. "From the start, I always had this feeling that you hated me. Yet you bought one of my family's cars."

Shocked, Ikuto turned around and stared at his car. Sure enough, there was the small Suzuki logo smack in the middle of the back of his car. He glared at it hatefully and made a mental note to himself to sell his car and by a new one somewhere else as soon as everything about Amu was sorted out. Amu stared at Ryuu in awe.

"You never told me your family owned that Suzuki company!" She accused, pouting cutely. Ryuu laughed and ruffled Amu's pink hair.

"I thought you would've figured it out," He said. "My grandparents own the company."

Amu frowned sheepishly at him, causing Ryuu to laugh and ruffle her hair again. Off to the side, Ikuto watched the whole thing, the jealousy evident on his face. He suddenly grabbed Amu and pulled her inside the building.

"Come on," He said through his teeth. "We're here to see the will, remember? Not brag about some stupid car company."

Amu smiled softly and pulled Ikuto to a stop, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Relax," She said, pulling Ikuto's head down so she could whisper into his ear. "You're still my favorite, remember?"

That made Ikuto feel a bit better, but he still sent Ryuu and Suzuki-san a hateful glance every now and then as they were walking up the stairs to the lawyer's office.

*****

"Hinamori-san!" The lawyer greeted politely as he noticed Amu walking into his office with Ikuto, Suzuki-san, and Ryuu following her closely. "I knew you were going to come some time soon! I'm sorry, by the way. I saw what happened on TV the other day, and I figured you would be here soon to get the will. That's why I pulled it out early."

Amu smiled gratefully at him.

"Arigato!" She said, making Ikuto wince once again at her false - cheerfullness. He could tell by her eyes that any mention of what they saw on TV made her miserable on the inside. The lawyer smiled at Amu gently and handed her the folder containing the will.

"I guess I'll leave you guys alone to read through it," He called over his shoulder as he walked out of the office. "Just don't break anything."

No one moved until they heard the door slam gently behind them. Right after that, Amu pulled out the will, her hands shaking slightly.

_Why am I so scared and nervous..? It's just some paper, for god's sake! Not some bomb that could kill Ikuto... Besides, it'll get one thing off my mind to know how I'm going to stay with for the rest of my life. But it feels like it's adding even more stress for me.. almost like I don't _want _to know. Ugh... my head hurts from worrying so much..._

Ikuto noticed this and put his arms around her reassuringly.

"Like I said," He told her. "It'll be okay."

Amu looked up at him nervously before quickly yanking out the remainder of the will that was still in the folder. The stack of paper wasn't that big; it was about 10 pages, give or take a page.

Eyes wide, Amu quickly glanced at the first couple of pages before throwing them aside on the desk. They were about nothing of any importance; just some stuff about what to do if one parent was still alive, who was going to pay for the funeral and taxes, and how to split up everything with Ami.

Finally, on the fourth page, Amu found what everyone was waiting for.

"Did you find it yet?" Suzuki-san asked impatiently. Ikuto glared at her for snapping at Amu.

"Read it aloud for us," He encouraged. Amu swallowed nervously and nodded before opening her mouth.

"Article III: In the event," She read in a trembling voice. "That neither I, Hinamori Midori, or my husband, are alive or well enough to take care of our children, Hinamori Amu and Hinamori Ami, they shall then be under the care of..."

Three audible gasps of anxiety were heard as Amu stopped to take a deep breath before continuing. Even Amu herself was more nervous than ever. Her whole upper body now trembling along with her hands and cracked voice.

"They s-shall then be un-under the c-care of..."

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**Do me a favor, and:**

**DON'T. POINT. OUT. ANY. MISTAKES / SLIPUPS.**

**Right now, I honestly don't care. God I feel so miserable. It kind of sucks; being sick on your first full day of Summer break... plus I'm rarely sick so I'm not used to any of this yet. last time I was sick was about 5 years ago.**

**... If you need me, I'll either be on the phone complaining to someone about how I feel or I'll be asleep. Or I just might be dead.  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you Iku-chan, xSakura, heartanime43, Natsuya801923, eapl, xhappily-randomx, Amuto20174, appupuppu, yumi-echizen, MW, Flower Of Hell, carlaivy, xiiaoICEangel, Kit2000, KiNoMoTo18, sylvanicara, xxxUtauloverxxx, ichiruki12741, EmikoHoshiko, anifreak o.O, maximumchrisyt, Artgrrl-Sunna Bluecat, and Shokara N' Strawberries for reviewing.**

**Reading back, I think I made the ending of the last chapter a bit overly-dramatic D: Maybe because I was sick... which reminds me. I'm feeling a lot better today. I think that the fact that I read all of your 'get well soon' reviews and felt good about them and the fact that my boyfriend came over and stayed with me helped a whole lot with it. Saraang-haeyo~ *happeh face***

**Thank you guys so so so so SOOOO much for 2OO reviews! You don't know how much this means to me... this is the 12th chapter and so far I have 217!  
... no thanks to all of you who put me on alert and never reviewed even once.  
**

**And then I just realized I forgot the ages :O Ikuto's 17, Amu and Ryuu are 16, and Suzuki-san is.... ****_old._**

**Oh yea... I just figured out the ending. That's right. It took me until now to figure out how to end this nicely without killing Amu... but she sure does get depressed a heck of a lot.**

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"They shall be under the care of," Amu repeated in a stronger voice. "A close friend or family member. They will go to the person who lives the closest to us location-wise. The friend / family must be a legal adult that is greatly trusted by both children, and must show that they have the traits to look after them properly."

She stopped and looked questioningly at Suzuki-san and Ikuto, who were leaning in dangerously close to her. Ryuu, on the other hand, was sitting in the plush chair behind the large desk, occasionally spinning the chair for his own entertainment. He looked extremely bored, but everyone could tell that he was listening to everything intently.

"Is there anything else?" Ikuto asked Amu, clearly still pretending to be oblivious to Ryuu's existence. Amu looked down at the paper and shook her head.

"Nope," She said softly. "Just some other things that aren't my problem. Like who pays their legal debts if they have any and stuff."

Ikuto smiled triumphantly at the Suzuki's.

"Well I guess I'll be taking Amu with me then," He said. Suzuki-san narrowed her eyes at him.

"Wait a minute," She said calmly, turning back to Amu. "Amu, do you trust him?"

Amu nodded.

"Is there anyway to prove that he can take care of you?" Suzuki-san continued. Amu turned around to look at Ikuto.

_Can I tell them? _Her eyes silently asked him. Ikuto nodded, and Amu turned back to face Suzuki-san.

"The first time I ever saw him," She began quietly. "We were doing a favor for each other. I was pretending to be his girlfriend for... _reasons,_ and he was paying me a large amount of money to do that. I was planning to use that money to help my parents pay off a debt... which Ikuto ultimately payed off for me in the end. The days we had that deal he was really a great guy. Even though he teased me a lot, I could always trust him to be the one that would carry me back to his house if for some reason I couldn't myself. Then one day, I got that call from my parents, saying that they were going to come home. That day I left Ikuto's house, and was nice enough to take me home, but he left right afterwards. But then when I saw what happened to my parents on TV, he came back and stayed with me the whole night, and the night after that. In fact, because I asked him to, he has been staying with me every night since then..."

Ikuto stared at her in awe. He had always thought that her level of trust in him had always been much lower. Suzuki-san raised an eyebrow at Amu.

"Was Ikuto good enough to use protection while the two of you were... _sleeping together?" _She asked. Amu and Ikuto both simultaneously blushed, only Amu much worse than Ikuto.

"No, no, no!" Amu said quickly. "We didn't do anything like that! We didn't do... _it... _all he did was just stay there and lend me his shoulder to cry on... which happened every night."

Suzuki-san nodded slowly before turning to Ryuu.

"Ryuu," She snapped. "You haven't done anything here except spin on that stupid chair! Say something to get Amu to come with us!"

Ryuu swiveled the chair back around to face everyone, shaking his head.

"I'm not telling her to do anything," He said simply. "She was my best friend; I would feel bad if I forced her into doing anything. I'm just going to let Amu pick herself."

Suzuki-san gaped at her son.

"B-but don't you want Amu to come with us?" She stammered. "Every now and then you say that you wished that you guys could visit each other, didn't you?"

Ryuu nodded slowly.

"I know," He said. "Sure, I'd love for Amu to come with us. It'd be wonderful to get my old best friend back. But, if she'd be happier here with Ikuto, then I'll leave her be. I'd rather have her happy farther away from me than closer to me but not as happy."

Amu mouthed a 'thank you' at Ryuu, and Ikuto even sent a thankful nod in his direction, though he still refused to look at him directly. Suzuki-san ignored this and kept a calm smile plastered on her face.

"Well," She said in a business-like manner. "All that aside, Ikuto, are you a legal adult?"

Ikuto's triumphant grin faltered.

"What does that anything?" He asked, confused. Suzuki-san smirked and reached for the will.

"It says right here," She said, pointing at the paper. "That you must be an _adult_ to be in charge of Amu. And you look about... sixteen?"

"Seventeen," Ikuto snarled under his breath.

Suzuki-san smiled.

"But eighteen is legal adult age, isn't it? And seventeen isn't eighteen. There's a difference," She said gloatingly. Ikuto glared at her and pulled Amu closer to him protectively.

"Buy me a week," He breathed quietly into Amu's ear. "I turn eighteen in a week."

Amu nodded, and turned back to Suzuki-san.

"Suzuki-san," She said in her most adorable voice, widening her eyes in a cute manner. "I think that you're right. I should go with you. But, can I get to stay here one more week? I want some time to say goodbye to everyone and pack up some stuff to take with me. Can I stay? Please...?"

Ryuu stopped spinning in the chair.

"Amu-chan," He said gently. "Do you think we can stay at your place until then?"

Amu smiled brightly at him.

"Sure!" She said in her falsely-cheerful tone.

"I'm staying too then," Ikuto muttered. Amu shifted in his hold.

"We should be getting back now," She said. "It's getting late..."

Everyone nodded, and stood up to leave.

*****

Back in Ikuto's car, Ikuto remembered something.

"Amu," He said, smirking. "I got you a little something."

Amu looked at him, confused. Ikuto's smirk grew deeper as he fished something out of his pocket. Amu's eyes widened when she saw Ikuto hold it up. Dangling from his hands was a small necklace. It was a silver chain, and hanging off the bottom was a small heart. It wasn't anything special, a very simplistic design, but to Amu it was the most beautiful thing in the world. The heart was pink with a silver center. There was a small yet intricate swirl design around the edges.

Amu gaped as the heart twisted and turned in the air, letting out a small sparkle as the light from the moon outside hit the small object. Ikuto looked at her, his smirk softening into a smile.

"I saw it while I was on the way to the funeral," He said. "And I thought you might want it."

He got no response from Amu, who was beyond surprised. Her eyes were wide and unblinking, her mouth was opened, forming a small 'o' with her lips. Ikuto's smile faded into a frown.

"If you don't like it," He started again nervously. "I could always return it and get you another-"

"No returning my necklace," Amu interrupted softly.

"You like it?" Ikuto asked, beginning to grin again. Amu nodded silently. Ikuto smirked.

"I'm glad," He said, taking the necklace and hooking it around Amu's neck. She shivered slightly as the cold metal touched her skin, but flung herself into Ikuto's lap, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Ikuto..." She said, her voice muffled slightly as she pressed her face into his shoulder. "My parents.. my little sister... _everyone's _left me. You... you're not going to leave me too, are you?"

Ikuto smiled at her and wrapped his arms around her tiny waist.

"There's no reason for me to leave," He simply said. "So I don't see any reason why I should anytime soon."

"Thank you... both for the necklace and what you said..." Amu whispered before closing her eyes and relaxing as she felt Ikuto's thin, strong arms tighten gently around her. She was asleep within minutes.

*****

Somehow Ikuto had managed to start the car and drive back to Amu's house with a sleeping girl on his lap and not get hurt in car accident or caught by any police. He didn't want to pull the soft, warm body off from on top of him; Amu looked so comfortable and peaceful the way she was.

When he stopped the car outside of Amu's house, Ikuto picked her up bridal-style and carried her inside. Inside, he found Suzuki-san and Ryuu waiting for them.

"So where-," Ryuu began loudly, but cut himself off as Ikuto glared at him and pointed at the sleeping Amu in his arms.

"So where do you think we sleep?" He whispered, pointing at himself and his mom. Ikuto shrugged.

"Don't ask me," He said in a tone that clearly showed that he honestly could've cared less. "Just sleep on a couch or something."

Without waiting for an answer, Ikuto carried Amu up the stairs and into Amu's bedroom. After placing Amu back down onto the bed, he attempted to stand up. Amu tightened her arms around his neck and pulled him back down, closer to her.

"Stay here..." She mumbled. Ikuto smirked but gave in. He crawled under the covers next to her and snaked his arms protectively around the pinkette again. He gazed appreciatively at the necklace one last time, proud of himself for finding Amu the perfect gift, before slipping into the blackness of sleep.

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**WOW. I'm finally done! Took me forever~**

**It's getting late... here it's about 12:3O in the morning... so I think I'll go to sleep now :D**

**REVIEW PLEASE!~**


	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you Iku-Chan, TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi, Hime Cullen Tsukiyomi, xSakura, Flower of Hell, Kaggie101, Natsuya801923, Luna-chan926, appuppu, Amuto20174, BlueAmuto, Shokara N' Strawberries, anifreak o.O, Kit2000, xxxUtauloverxxx, xhappily-randomx, iheartanime43, sylvanicara, funnyghost444, HarunaNiwa073, KiNoMoTo18, Ikutosgirl, EmikoHoshiko, colourfulgurl, and Artgrrl-Sunna Bluecat for reviewing!**

**Well, after thinking the whole story through, there's officially going to be 15 chapters... and then an epilogue... which means 3 more chapters left all together. Actually, I'm going to miss this story. It was fun writing. But.. I don't know how to continue it after the ending I thought of... so that's the end.**

**Oh, and just for the record, Amu's probably going to cry in half of the remaining chapters... so if you don't like sob scenes stop reading here.**

**Might not update for a while. Report cards came in the mail, and I'm screwed. Apparently to my parents, a 3.85 is the end of the world.**

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Amu blinked sleepily as she sat up in her bed. The first thing that she noticed this morning was that Ikuto wasn't next to her, watching her with that perverted smirk on his face as he waited for her to wake up. Then she realized what day it was today... Ikuto's birthday.

_That was fast.. the whole week flew by so fast..._

Various times throughout the week, Amu would ask Ikuto whether he had a plan about what to do at the end of the week. Ikuto always assured her that, though Amu could feel this nagging feeling inside her that told her that Ikuto was just waiting for that perfect idea to pop into his head (... much like my writing). She brushed it off, deciding not to worry about that right now.

As Amu left her room and walked down the stairs, she heard two voices yelling at each other in the living room. She smiled. Ikuto and Suzuki-san argued with each other so much over the past couple of days, Amu learned how to just ignore it and head into one of the other rooms in the house and talk with Ryuu until they calmed down.

As Amu walked by the living room, she decided to take a peek inside to see how the argument was going. Suzuki-san's face was a strange combination of red and purple while Ikuto looked so mad that Amu was surprised that he hadn't picked up the chair next to him and thrown it across the room yet. As soon as they noticed Amu standing in the doorway, however, they both smoothed their faces down to a calm and collected expression.

"Hey Amu," Ikuto said casually, as if all he and Suzuki-san were doing was discussing the weather.

"Hi," Amu replied brightly, walking over to give Ikuto a quick kiss. "I'm going to get something to eat. See you in a few."

Ikuto smiled at her and Amu walked away, not even bothering to ask what the fight was about. It happened so often about the littlest things nowadays; Amu could honestly careless as long as no one was killed in their fights.

As soon as Ikuto and Suzuki-san were sure that Amu was out of sight and hearing range, they turned around, glared at each other, and started up their not so little fight again.

"I'm not going to let that happen," Ikuto growled. Suzuki-san smiled innocently at him.

"But I can," She said sweetly. Ikuto's eyes were filled with hate with an edge of panic. "Like I said before she came and interrupted us, Ryuu is going to own our company soon. And he's going to need a fiance. And who else would be better than Amu?"

Ikuto looked like he was ready to shoot someone.

"You forgot about me," He said, pointing to himself. "She's already _mine._"

Suzuki-san smirked.

"Which still leaves me confused," She said. "I mean, how can you believe that she really loves you? All she does is complain about how perverted you are.. not that I blame her, but that's beside the point. Can you really call it love if all that happens is one of you harasses the other and that other complains about it all the time?"

Ikuto frowned. He thought he had lain off the perverted jokes by a lot since Amu was feeling so miserable at the moment, and she was certainly laying off on the complaining about his pervertedness. Sure, it looked a lot less than the two of them, since they were used to way more, but did it really look that bad on the outside?

He shrugged it off. As long as it didn't seem to bother Amu too much, then he didn't mind. He turned his attention back to Suzuki-san.

"And what if I don't let her go with you?" Ikuto asked. Suzuki-san grinned evilly.

"Well then," She said. "Then I guess you wouldn't mind if Amu got a bit... _hurt."_

Ikuto paled. Suzuki-san smirked.

"Don't act like you have no idea about what I'm talking about," She continued. "Because you would know. You're rich, too. Rich people can get away with _anything._"

She held her hand in the air.

"Pretend that I'm holding a knife," She told him. Then she made a slicing motion with her hand. "Now what if my hand accidentally _slips_ in front of poor Amu's face?"

"You wouldn't," Ikuto said angrily. "What about your son, huh? I can tell. He loves Amu almost as much as I do. What are going to do about that?"

Suzuki-san smiled slyly.

"Already figured that out," She said proudly. "I'll figure out a way to tell him so that he'll blame it on you."

Ikuto rolled his eyes.

"Yeah," He said sarcastically. "Like I would just walk into Amu's room with a knife and kill the girl I love. Very believable."

Suzuki-san shook her head.

"You never know," She said. "Love can do strange things to people."

Ikuto raised an eyebrow.

"Oh!" He said with fake enthusiasm. "So that's why you're such a physcopath!"

Suzuki-san dropped her cheerfulness and glared at him again.

"Watch it," She warned. "I wouldn't have a problem with harming any of your friends while I'm at it."

"How about," Ikuto pleaded, trying a different approach. "I... I'll do anything. Anything else that doesn't involve taking Amu away."

Suzuki-san shook her head in mock sympathy.

"Sorry," She spat. "But there's no going around it. We leave tomorrow. Make her come with us, either willingly or unwillingly, doesn't matter to me. She just as to get in the car and not jump out of a window on the way there. It's your choice. You can get her to come with us like the good little girl she's supposed to have been, or you can keep her, and the knife might just slip out of my hands... or it may be worse than a knife... maybe something more painful. So you can hear her scream while she's hurt. Maybe she'll even scream till she _dies. _It's all your decision."

Suzuki-san walked out of the room, but stopped.

"Oh," She called over her shoulder. "And you're not going to tell Amu about any of this."

Then she left. Ikuto sighed. Either way someone other than him was going to be unhappy. And it would be him and probably Amu. Ikuto wouldn't mind if it was just him, he would gladly accept all the pain if Amu was still happy. But no.

***** That Night

Amu frowned as she walked out of the bathroom, hair wet and nothing but a towel wrapped around her on. Ikuto had done basically nothing that day, all he did was mope around in Amu's room, sitting in that chair by her desk and glaring at the ground. Amu walked over and stood in front of him, her dripping wet body slightly shivering because of the wind blowing in through the open window. Ikuto wrapped his arms around Amu and pulled her close, warming her up instantly. He was especially careful to keep the towel up and covering her body; it would kill him to loose control the day before she was set to leave him.

"Amu..." He said suddenly, burying his face in her hair. "I want you to know, that no matter what happens, no matter what I do or say, I'll always love you."

Amu smiled at him and leaned up to give him a quick kiss. Ikuto tried his best to ignore the ripple of pain that ripped through him.

It was going to be harder to let go than he thought.

*****

Ikuto watched Amu as she lay on the bed, asleep. Though she looked so sad when she was awake, her sleeping face looked like she was perfectly content with the way the world was now. Ikuto frowned. He thought that it was enough to have your whole life torn apart once per lifetime. Amu might just break the record tomorrow.

Ikuto knew that tomorrow he couldn't be nice to Amu. It would be hard enough to make her go with them. Why make it harder by being nice to her and then tell her to go? But still, he knew that he would owe her an explanation, but there would be no chance of doing that without Suzuki-san noticing.

He sighed. Ikuto knew that there was one way of letting her know, but he really didn't want to go through with that. There would be a chance that Amu might not even notice the difference, therefore the whole plan failing. But still, it was worth a shot.

Ikuto slowly removed Amu's hands from around him and carefully unhooked the necklace from around her neck. He slipped it into his pocket and quietly walked out of the room. Ikuto wandered around Amu's house, looking for an empty room.

He looked up and down the hallway outside of Amu's room. At the end of the hallway, he saw a closed door. Something about it told Ikuto that no one's been in there for a while, so he decided to give that room a try. He opened the door. Inside was a typical bedroom. The bed was larger than the one in Amu's room; the bed nicely made. As if someone had put in a lot of effort to make it look nice. Ikuto walked around the room for a bit, forgetting what he was actually in there to do for a moment. He stopped in front of a small table on the bed. The top of the table was covered with picture frames, with albums stacked up high around the table. One of the pictures had Amu with a man, a woman, and a little girl in a park.

_This must be her family... so I'm in... her parents room right now?_

Ikuto walked back over to the door, shutting it and making sure to lock it tightly. He fished the necklace out of his pocket, along with a duplicate heart charm; one that looked almost exactly like the one that was originally on the necklace. There were differences, but they were so subtle that you would've had to stare at the necklace for hours to notice the difference. And the duplicate was a locket instead of just a solid heart. Ikuto opened the locket and pressed a small red button inside it.

Two hours later, Ikuto quietly walked back into Amu's room and placed the necklace around her neck. He hoped that Amu would be able to notice the difference and Suzuki-san and Ryuu wouldn't. Ikuto decided to go back into the room of Amu's parents. He didn't want to stay in Amu's room; it would only make him feel worse about all of this.

He wandered in, eyeing the stack of albums in the corner. Ikuto picked one up and decided to flip through it. He smiled slightly when he saw pictures of Amu looking particularly cute or silly, and sometimes just slammed the album shut and moved on to the next one because her smiling face made him feel instantly guilty about what he was going to have to do tomorrow.

After a couple hours of doing this, Ikuto felt tiredness overcome his sad and miserable body. He slipped to the ground, not caring that he hit the floor with an audible 'thud', and just fell asleep, curled up on the hardwood floor.

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**Review? Review and you get a pie :D an _imaginary _pie XD**


	14. Chapter 14

**Thank you Kaggie101, xiiaoICEangel, HarunaNiwa073, carlaivy, Animegirl67213, EmikoHoshiko, Flower of Hell, xXbunnyholicXx, strawberriesatmidnight13, xSakura, TsukiyomiAliMissaWatusi, kanameXakari, and MonoKuroKitty1, eapl, Natsuya801923, Luna-Chan926, xhappily-randomx, Amuto20174, iheartanime43, Shokara N' Strawberries, xxxUtauloverxxx, sylvanicara, appupuppu, sakuita, Hitsugaya-is-my-homeboy, Kyuu no Amuto, Pop Dragon, Be3n Ther3 D0ne ThaT, KiNoMoTo18, anifreak o.O, and CrAzYaNiMeFrEaKgUrL for reviewing.**

**1 more chapter and then the epilogue and then this story's done. I really will miss this story... it's been fun to write this. But somethings have to move on.**

**Yeah... I'm just going to skip over that whole part about Ikuto telling Amu to go... whole scene's just too depressing to write.**

**Some of you guys already guessed the ending. Stupid smart people. D:**

**Might not update for a while after this since I promised I'd take my little cousin out to see the (****_boring_) Tech Museum (my cousin's going to grow up to be one of those super nerds) and then go see the (_not so boring_) Transformers movie tomorrow :D Anyone just as strange as me and wants to see that movie?**

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The afternoon that they left was a rainy one. Amu clung onto Ikuto, screaming and crying and refusing to let go.

"Ikuto..." She sobbed over and over again. "Why do you hate me all of a sudden!?"

"I don't hate you," He told her quietly. "It'll just be better for you if you go with them."

Amu looked up at him. There was sadness in his eyes, with a flicker of pleading, as if he was begging her to know something. Amu ignored it, to distraught to barely even notice it was there.

Suddenly, she yanked Ikuto and pushed him against a wall, pressing her own body against his to keep him there. She planted her lips on his, forcefully using her tongue to open his mouth and slipping it in. Amu didn't care how Ikuto felt about this. She didn't care how differently she was acting compared to usual. All she wanted was for him to know. For him to know now much she wanted him... _needed _him to be with her.

Ikuto, on the other hand, was trying everything. He wanted to put his arms around her tell her to stop crying. He wanted to kiss her back. He wanted to explain to her everything that went on yesterday. But he knew he couldn't, and was trying his best to remain calm. It wasn't easy. Plus the whole fact that Amu had begun to rub her warm, soft body against him wasn't help at all.

When Ikuto finally felt that he couldn't take it anymore, he pushed Amu away. She staggered a few steps back, surprised at his actions.

"Ikuto...?" Her hurt voice barely came out as a whisper. Ikuto refused to look her in the eye, scared of what he might see.

"You'll be better of with them," He said. "So just go."

Amu was silent for a moment, then remembered something. The necklace. The night Ikuto gave it to her. It all came flooding back to her.

"That night," She said, her voice shaking. "The night you gave me the necklace... you promise... you promised that you would never leave me! You lied! You're breaking that promise right now!"

Ikuto felt his heart drop. He hadn't even remembered that he had told Amu that.

"Yeah well," He told her bluntly. "Sometimes promises have to be broken."

That did it. Amu felt her legs give way under her and she slumped limply onto the ground. Ikuto did nothing about it; he just stood there, staring down at her emotionlessly.

"Ikuto..." She pleaded. She thought that since she was already on her knees on the ground, she might as well beg like the desperate person she was. "Please..."

Ikuto easily pulled her of and walked away. Amu made no move to follow; feeling she didn't have the strength to stand up on her own again let alone run after Ikuto. Ryuu slowly walked over, putting a reassuring arm around Amu before helping her up and carrying her to the car. As they walked by Ikuto, Ryuu glared at him.

"Why?" He hissed quietly enough so that Ikuto could hear but Amu couldn't. "She really loves you."

Without waiting for an answer, Ryuu walked out the door. Ikuto decided to follow them out. It wasn't as if he could stay in Amu's house while she wasn't here herself.

As he walked out, he saw Amu sitting in the back seat of the Suzuki's car, staring at him through the back window. Her face was a mixture of sadness, pain, disappointment, anger, loneliness, and betrayal. Add in all the crying coming from her and you've got one miserable look. She held his gaze for about five seconds before sinking back down onto the seat, sobbing loudly again. Ikuto frowned. That face was going to haunt him until he saw her smile again.

He sighed as he watched the car speed away. Right now he was only certain of two things: one, he hated Ryuu and the Suzuki's more than ever; and two, he was going to have a lot of stuff to do before putting his plan in action.

*****

Amu didn't say a word during the whole car trip. Of course, no one really tried to start a conversation with her, all of them scared of that dead look in her eyes. In fact, no one said anything at all because of the awkward atmosphere that had fallen between them. Suzuki-san was concentrating on driving. Amu was leaning her head against one of the windows, her now silent sobs dripping down to make a small wet puddle on the edge of the leather seat. Ryuu was huddled in the corner of his seat, totally not happy with how things were turning out.

The car slowly pulled to a stop in front of the Suzuki's large house. Amu had to admit, it was large, but she comforted herself by assuring herself that Ikuto's was bigger. Not that she would ever be back to check for sure.

"Suzuki-san..." She began, choking back her sobs and trying to keep her voice calm and un-teary. "Which one's my room? I want some time in there to.. uh... unpack."

Wrong. She wanted to find her room so she could go cry without anyone seeing her. Suzuki-san smiled gently at her.

"Go up the first flight of stairs you see, then go to the second door on the right."

Amu said her thanks and quickly ran inside the house before anyone could see the tears beginning to fall.

_It's... It's the same room I had in Ikuto's house..._

She tried her best to shove the image and thought of the blue-haired, smirking pervert out of her mind. It wasn't working.

As soon as Amu ran into the room and locked the door behind her, she did the first thing that came to mind. She shoved a CD into the music player in the corner, and set it to max volume. She didn't want to risk anyone hearing her if her crying grew to be pretty loud again, so she played the music loudly just to be on the safe side.

_I hope your heart feels relieved now,  
Please forget about me and live on,  
Those tears will dry completely as time goes on  
It would've hurt less if we hadn't even met at all  
I hope you'll bury our promises of being together forever baby.  
And I'll pray for you..._

Amu shrugged; the song sounded okay. Not something that would make it sound like that Amu was cutting herself or something inside the room, but not something extremely happy either. She grabbed the remote and slid it into her back pocket before collapsing on the large queen-sized bed, breaking into another round of sobs.

Amu clutched the necklace around her small fist. It was the only memory of Ikuto that she had left.

_Yeah well, some times promises have to be broken._

Ikuto's words kept floating back to Amu in her head. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She angrily yanked the necklace off from around her neck, snapping the chain, and throwing it onto the ground. It hit the ground with an audible 'click'. Amu sat up quickly and crawled onto the ground, looking for the necklace.

The chain was broken, and the small heart had flown off of it. But other than that, everything looked fine. Amu breathed a sigh of relief. Even though every time she noticed the presence of the necklace, it would remind of her of her first.. and probably only... true love hurt her, she would still hate for the small piece of jewelry to be broken. The chain could be easily replaced, but not the heart. Something about it told Amu that it was quite expensive and rare.

Amu held the small heart in her palm, lightly throwing the chain onto the table. She'll get that fixed later; the only part she cared about was the heart. Still scared that she had probably damaged it, she ran her fingers along the edges. Once sure that nothing was wrong with it she held it by the loop on the top where the chain was supposed to go through, allowing it to dangle from her grasp.

For a moment, she forgot all about her heart break and was mesmerized by how the sunlight from the window danced off the metal of the heart, reflecting off many beautiful colors. Then all of a sudden, the heart fell open. Amu gasped. Had she really broken it? A small piece of folded up paper fell out from the opening. Intrigued, Amu picked it up and unfolded it. Inside was a small in of words, written in Ikuto's handwriting.

_No, you didn't break it. Just push the red button._

Amu smiled. Ikuto knew her so well. But then her memories flooded back to her and replaced her smile with a pained frown. Amu curiously picked up the... she guessed she should call it a locket now since it opens... _locket_ and gently poked the small red button on one panel of the inside.

_Um yeah... is this thing on?_

Amu jumped at the sound of the voice, whipping her head around wildly trying to figure out who said it. Her hand somehow slipped back to the locket and pressed the red button again. The voice stopped. So the voice was coming from the locket. Amu pushed it again, and the voice started right back up again.

_Okay... so uh... Amu, this is Ikuto. I know that right now I'm probably not your favorite person, if not the number one person on your kill list, but give me a chance to explain. I had to. Suzuki-san threatened to... well I shouldn't be telling you that right now because I wouldn't like it very much if you were dead._

Amu gasped. Suzuki-san made him? She automatically prepared her to run away from her new home, but the voice stopped her.

_Wait. Don't go leaving or anything. I need you to stay there for a little bit. Please.. for me? I promised myself that I would someday get you back, and it wouldn't exactly make it easier for me if you keep running from place to place. So just stay there for a bit, and don't act weird. I _will_ come for you. And I think that this is one of those rare moments where it wouldn't sound totally cheesy and unnecessary to say 'This hurts me more than it hurts you.' Because it does. Think about how I feel. You were the first person that I ever loved, and you were taken away from me. You were the first person I really trusted with everything, and I wasn't afraid to be my (perverted) self around you. Now you're gone. Have you ever realized that I would be totally miserable without you? Anyways, that's beside the point. So why didn't I just make you stay here with me? Well, like I said earlier, Suzuki-bitch said that if you didn't go with her, she'd... still not supposed to say. So I'm letting you go, just coming back to get you later. She didn't say anything about me not being allowed to try to steal you back. And I know that this is totally off topic right now, but wherever you are, listeing to this, I'm probably distracted from whatever I'm supposed to be doing right now, missing you._

Ikuto's voice began to sound choked up, and Amu briefly wondered if he had begun to cry. She touched her face, and realized that she had also begun to cry. She never realized how much she meant to him.

_... So um.. I guess that's about it. This thing's got a five minute time-limit on it, and I lost track of time, so I'll just end it here. All I had really planned to say was that I love you, I _need_ you, and I'll be back for you. At tops I think I should come in about four months, probably sooner than that. Just don't kill me if it's any later. Something might come up and I might have to put that as my first priority instead of getting you since, as much as I hate to admit it, you're perfectly fine and safe where you are now. So just.. wait for me.. okay?_

Amu nodded, even though she knew that Ikuto couldn't see it. The tears were uncontrollable now, falling down her face faster than ever. She decided what she was going to do.

"Ikuto..." She whispered. "I'll wait for you. I don't care if it takes you all those four months. As long as you come back, I'll wait."

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**Oh god. Eyes hurt from typing so much. I typed this all in one sitting amazingly. Normally it takes me forever to type a chapter.**

**REVIEW.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Thank you Flower of Hell, Animegirl67213, XYNDiCATE, TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatsui, xSakura, Lilium's Reign, MonoKuroKitty 1, Hime Cullen Tsukiyomi, Amuto201714, appupupppu, ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat, HarunaNiwa073, CrAzYaNiMeFrEaKgUrL, Natsuya801923, carlaivy, Kaggie101, Kiku18, EmikoHoshiko, anifreak o.O, maximumchrisyt, iheartanime43, xiiaoICEangel, Shokara N' Strawberries for reviewing!**

**Anyways, making it two more chapters then the epilogue instead of one. I wrote more than I expected.**

**WOW. 3OO REVIEWS. Just... ****_wow. _In 3 chapters also. I'm so surprised... and so happy! *happeh face***

**Damn... it feels like yesterday that I started this story. I remember that I was totally nervous that this story would totally suck and get no reviews :D look at it now. I was also freaking out over the idea that some flamers would come along and start flaming. It never happened. So now I'm like my mom, totally over-worrying about nothing.**

**And I feel like I need to say this: RIP Michael Jackson. You were never my favorite singer (Actually the first time I heard your songs is now, when they're playing them on MTV)) but you were BoA's favorite singer, and BoA's my favorite singer. Once BoA starts spamming twitter with depressing messages about you... well, you get how I feel then D:**

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Everyone watched as Amu slowly placed the cookie in her mouth, shocked. She barely ate anything anymore, so whenever she put something in her mouth and swallowed it, it was a huge deal.

Amu raised her thin eyebrows at Ryuu and Suzuki-san, both sitting across the table from her and staring at her intently. She frowned; having people stare at her made her uncomfortable. She pushed her chair back away from the table and stood up.

"I'm full," She said in her melodious voice, sexily flipping her now waist-length pink hair behind her back. "See you."

Suzuki-san watched, concerned, as Amu slowly walked up the stairs. She reached for the phone, dialing a number she wished she never had to call. Beside her, Ryuu looked confused,

"Who you calling?" He asked.

"Help," His mom told him. "Amu can't keep living like this. This is the first time she's eaten in _weeks,_ and all she ate was that small cookie. There hasn't been a day in the past year and a half that she hasn't fainted at least _once _from hunger. And have you noticed how thin she is now? You could probably lift her up with one hand if you tried. As much as she wants to stay like this, it's not healthy. We can't have you marrying someone who's practically anorexic minus the throwing up."

*****

Amu shut the door behind her as she walked into her room. She sat on her bed, unhooking the necklace from her neck and pressing the small button inside the locket. She had played the recording so many times since she moved here, the edges of the small button were beginning to wear off and Amu had memorized the whole thing ages ago. Amu was glad she had replaced the chain. Without it, she would've probably lost the necklace ages ago. Even now, she still loved playing it just so she could hear Ikuto's voice tell her that he loved her and missed her.

Not that she believed that anymore. The months had come and gone, with no sign of Ikuto. Amu was close to thinking that Ikuto might have forgotten about her... or even moved on to someone else.

"Ikuto..." She whispered, tears forming behind her eyes. "It's been way past four months... it's been _two years. _Where are you?"

Amu thought it might be because maybe Ikuto couldn't recognize her anymore when he was looking. She had to admit it even to herself, she was a completely different person from two years ago. Instead of keeping her hair at shoulder length, she had let it grow past her waist. She had exchanged her colorful wardrobe for completely black outfits. She traded her sweet and nice attitude for a 'cool n' spicy' facade, making everyone she met either wish they were her or cower in fear of her.

And the obvious one. She stopped eating. Without Ikuto, Amu felt that everything to do or see on Earth was boring and unnecessary. So then why eat more food than what was absolutely needed to survive? Amu would only eat when she felt that if she didn't she would probably die the next day, and even then eat only one piece of food.

She didn't care that after a couple of days of starving herself she would faint on average three times a day from the hunger. She didn't care that it made her feel weak and dizzy and she couldn't do much except stay in her room and rest if she wanted to have the little energy she had to last for a couple more weeks. She didn't care that everyday she refused to eat was probably hurting her body and would shorten her life-span. As long as it kept her alive for another day to wait for Ikuto, she didn't mind.

In truth, she actually liked the time she spent unconscious. She would black out for sometimes hours at a time, and those were the only moments she wouldn't feel the sharp, strong pain of missing Ikuto. Amu sort of thought of them as successful anesthetics.

As if right on cue, her stomach began to growl loudly. Amu closed her eyes and leaned back onto the pillows on her bed, hoping that her mind would slip into that imaginary world where she didn't have to think about anything again. But a sharp knock on the door stopped her.

Annoyed, Amu sat up and made it look like she was doing something other than trying to knock herself out. She grabbed a book and pretended to read it just as the door opened, and Suzuki-san walked in and sat next to Amu on the bed.

"Amu-chan," She began, smiling and trying her best to sound motherly. "I understand that you haven't been eating much lately. And you probably know that that isn't healthy. You're fainting all the time, sooner or later you're going to get very sick."

Amu shrugged, making a face. She hated that woman, for making Ikuto give her up, although she couldn't openly express her hate. That would give Ikuto away, therefore making them both vulnerable to getting hurt by the bitch.

"Anyways," Suzuki-san continued, ignoring Amu's change in expression. "I'm not going to let you keep being like this. Remember that wedding dress we got you a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, it's too big for you now."

Amu scowled. She was barely 18 now, and the woman already counted her as the fiance of her son. She didn't see how it works out, considering no rings were bought yet.

"What's the big deal?" Amu asked in an emotionless voice. It took too much energy to make herself sound excited or concerned or any other feeling. "It's not that much to alter the dress. Just tighten the waist part a bit and it should fit fine again."

Suzuki-san shook her head.

"That's not the point," She said, exasperated. "The point is you. You're not exactly the perfect picture of health right now. I mean look at you!"

She picked up Amu's wrist and a small bracelet laying on the table. The bracelet probably would've been pretty tight even for an average five year old. Suzuki-san placed it around Amu's thin wrist. The bracelet loosely slipped right off.

"That's the problem," She said. "The problem is that we would look bad if my future daughter-in-law collapsed from hunger at her own wedding!"

Amu shrugged.

"Fine," She said, her voice sounding more dead and hollow than last time she spoke. "Then I'll go out and with Ryuu or something and eat a heck of a lot of food before this 'wedding' then."

Not like she was going to. Amu only said it because she wanted Suzuki-san out of the room because right now; the nagging woman sounded a lot like Ikuto when he was worried about Amu. She felt she could cry just at the comparison since it included her favorite person.

Suzuki-san shook her head again.

"It's going to take a lot more than one meal to return you back to normal," She said. "Which is why I called help. I talked to people at a place where they specialize in helping people like you return back to their normal state. Basically they take you to this relaxing place where you can't talk to anyone of your family or friends, and all you can do is focus on recovering."

Amu raised an eyebrow.

_You can't talk to anyone of your family or friends.._

She liked the sound of that. Anything or reason to get away from this bitch and she'll gladly take it.

"Okay..." Amu said slowly. "So when do I go?"

"Actually," Suzuki-san told her. "They're already here to pick you up."

Amu smiled slightly.

"Okay then," She said. Suzuki-san led her downstairs, where there was a man with light brown hair and green eyes waiting on the couch.

"So this is the girl?" He asked Suzuki-san. She nodded, and the man took Amu by the arm and slowly walked her to a limo waiting outside.

"A limo.." Amu murmured. "Nice."

The man grinned.

"You're a special case," He said teasingly. "So you get the limo."

Amu took a look at the man carefully. He actually looked a lot like... Kukai. Her best friend, tied with Ryuu, when she was growing up. The person who first introduced her to her love, Ikuto. As soon as the man turned around and saw that the door had been closed by Suzuki-san behind them, he smirked at Amu.

"Oi, Hinamori," He said. "Remember me? Kukai? Well, we're kidnapping you."

Amu blinked.

"Who's 'we'...?" She asked. Kukai grinned.

"You'll see," He said, gently pushing her into the back seat of the limo and shutting the door behind her before climbing into the driver's seat. Amu sank into the cold leather of the seats, wondering who 'we' was. She heard a movement from the seat across from her, and looked up to see a man staring straight back at her. Amu's breath hitched as she recognized him.

"Amu...?" The man breathed, his eyes looking her over carefully to check if he was right. Amu gasped.

"I-I...Ikuto!?"

* * *

**So since I changed it (more like cut this chapter in half), one more chapter after this and then the epilogue and then I'm done! D: Aw...**

**REVIEW. please?**


	16. Chapter 16

**Thank you carlaivy, yumi-echizen, ArtGrrl-Sunna Bluecat, EmikoHoshiko, Flower of Hell, CrAzYaNiMeFrEaKgUrL, xSakura, KiNoMoTo18, XYNDiCATE, xiiaoICEangel, Kaggie101, Luna-chan926, iheartanime43, Natsuya801923, appupuppu, Kiku18, AmuxIkutoFan, Ai-Chan_95, Neko-Chan, EdoPt90, HarunaNiwa073, BlueAmuto, Amuto-4eva, Lilium's Reign, hotcherriblossum, anifreak o.O, MaximumChrisyt, and xxxUtauloverxxx for reviewing.**

**Last chapter.. then epilogue.. then done. After that, I just have to work out a few loose ends of the plot for my next story and then I'll start that. (If you look on my profile, there's a section about the stories I'm planning. Top is most probable to be next, bottom least.)**

**I think I'm going to go for 365 reviews by the end of the story (chapter after this one). I don't know why... maybe because there's 365 days in a year? 35O seems like too little and anything past 375 is too much; I'm probably not going to reach that. Since 365 is in the middle, I'll use that.**

* * *

The two of them just stared at each other silently, both afraid to be the first one to move. They both looked so different to the other; it shocked them beyond words.

Ikuto looked a lot taller to Amu. His dark blue hair was slightly longer and softer, making Amu want to stroke it more than she had ever wanted to when she saw Ikuto last. His midnight blue eyes didn't hold the same happiness and satisfaction that filled them two years ago when he would see Amu everyday. Now they were filled with a kind of exhaustion, almost as if he was trying extremely hard to not drop where he was and fall asleep.

Ikuto, on the other hand, was extremely horrified in what he saw in Amu. All of her clothes looked to be for her; the sleeves of the black jacket she was wearing hung a couple inches past the tips of her fingers even though the jacket looked small enough to fit in the small ten year old that lived across the street from him. Her face was extremely pale, and her eyes had this emotionless dead look to them, as if she had forgotten how to smile or something. Her hair was now twice as long as Ikuto had last remembered it, a slight wave to the natural pink color as the locks of hair cascaded gently down her back and almost reached her mid-thigh. To him, the hair looked like it was filled with Amu's strawberry shampoo, begging him to sniff in the sweet scent.

_You scent pervert.. don't think of that kind of stuff now. You can do that later._

Ikuto shook his head, ridding himself of the thoughts. Amu still sat calmly in her seat, not moving an inch since she was placed there by Kukai. She looked slightly nervous to be here, turning her head to look at the windows behind her every now and then. Ikuto looked at her longingly. Amu glared.

"B-baka," Her voice was trembling, but Ikuto could see the sweetness and perfection of the sound behind the shaking. "What took so long? _Two years? _I almost thought you... f-forgot me..."

Ikuto ran over and was sitting next to her within seconds, arms wrapped tightly around her tiny waist.

"How could I forget you?" He murmured. "I love you, remember?"

Amu didn't know what made her do what she did next. Maybe it was all the frustration from seeing him again after two years, she'll never know. But she did know that she roughly shoved Ikuto away, hot, angry tears streaming down her face.

"But still!" She cried. "Two years!? You promised me _four months._ There's a huge difference between two years and four months! What happened?"

Ikuto looked at her sadly.

"I knew it," He said quietly. "I knew it. Kukai told me that I was wrong. But now I know I'm right. It's been too long, and I'm too late. You gave up on me."

Luckily the limo hadn't started yet; Kukai found a problem with the engine and was outside trying to fix it. Ikuto leaned over Amu and opened the door with a 'click'.

"Okay then," He said emotionlessly, motioning outside the door. "If you hate me now, then just go. I know that I took really long, and I'm sorry. I wouldn't hate you if you left.. since I already hate myself for making you wait. So if you really want to, then go back. I'd understand."

Amu leaped on him, so that he was lying on his back on the seat with Amu crouched on top of him. Ikuto felt her tears splatter all over his face as they dripped down from hers.

"You don't understand," Amu sobbed. "I don't _hate _you, I couldn't even if I wanted to and try my hardest. It was that I was _worried._ I didn't find any sign of the fact that you were coming; I thought that either something really bad happened to you or you moved on, found someone better than me..."

Ikuto sighed.

"You were half right," He said quietly. Amu stared at him, alarmed.

"Y... you moved on...?" She whispered in horror. Ikuto quickly wrapped his arms and pulled her frail body down so she was laying on top of him on the limo seat, trying to calm the soft shaking in the pinkette's back.

"No, no," He said soothingly. "I mean about the something really bad happening."

Amu sat up, concern written all over her face instead of the previous shock.

"What happened?" She asked. Ikuto sat up and leaned against the back of the seat, reaching out to close the limo door just as the vehicle started. He didn't say anything for a while, just held Amu close to him as if she could make everything better. Kukai wasn't listening to them, Amu and Ikuto could hear him on the phone with Utau while driving the limo. About half an hour into the ride, Ikuto took a deep breath.

"Let's just say," He said slowly, as if every word was hurting him. "I now know how you felt when you lost your parents."

Amu gasped. Ikuto heard her, but didn't look up at her. He instead focused on the simple black design of the mini-fridge off to the side of the limo, hoping that Amu wouldn't notice the tears forming in his eyes. Ikuto remembered how Amu would cry whenever someone mentioned her family. Now he was kind of like the same way, only he cried way less.

"Ikuto..." Amu said softly. "You'll be okay. Everything's going to be okay. It'll hurt a lot at first, but then soon you'll realize that they wouldn't like it if you were sad..."

Ikuto stopped her talking with a passionate kiss. Amu flushed a bright red, but didn't do anything to push him away. After a couple minutes, Ikuto pulled away, a smile on his face.

"You're back here now," He said. "I'm already better."

Amu grinned and flung her arms around his neck.

"I'm glad I'm back," She whispered. "Suzuki-bitch was really starting to be a pain in a butt."

Ikuto raised an eyebrow.

"Oh god, Amu-chan," Amu mimicked in a perfect imitation of Suzuki-san. "You're turning anorexic! My future daughter in law can't be so thin and possibly faint at her own wedding. GOD. What the hell does she mean by 'daughter in law'?! It wasn't even official, there were no rings or anything!"

Ikuto raised his hand up to Amu's face and let his fingers linger on her cheekbone.

"I don't blame her," He said. "Honestly, what did you do, try to starve yourself to death? I don't see why; you were never one of those fat people who desperately wanted to loose weight."

Amu looked at him with sad eyes and shrugged.

"I don't know what made me," She said quietly. "But after I started giving up on you coming back, everything seemed pointless, worthless, like there was no point in doing anything but what was absolutely necessary."

Ikuto glared at her.

"Eating's a necessary," He pointed out. Amu nodded.

"But eating _a lot _isn't," She retorted. Ikuto frowned.

"True," He admitted. "But now that you're back here, and I plan on keeping you here forever, promise me you'll eat like that normal over-eating person you once were?"

Amu raised an eyebrow.

"You calling me fat?" She asked. Ikuto smirked.

"Maybe," He said. Amu pouted cutely and deliberately turned her head away so she wasn't facing Ikuto. Ikuto sighed.

"Anyways," He said, continuing his explanation from earlier. "After you left, well... _that _happened. That was the main reason why I'm so late. Since they owned Easter and they... _left, _the whole company was mine now. And they didn't exactly leave it in the best shape. It took a lot of all-nighters to get everything back to normal, and on top of that every now and then I would just stop whatever I was doing and plan out how to get you back."

Amu smiled.

"And that meant you kidnapped me with the help of Kukai?" She asked dryly. Ikuto smirked.

"Exactly," He said, but his teasing face vanished and was replaced by a serious one. Amu frowned.

"What's wrong?" She asked. Ikuto shook his head.

"Nothing's wrong," He assured her. "Just thinking about something."

Amu grinned at him.

"Care to tell me what?" She asked hopefully. Ikuto smiled back.

"Okay," He said. "It was about a surprise for you. Close your eyes."

Amu obediently closed her eyes, and Ikuto removed the necklace from around her neck. He then pulled a different one from his pocket and hooked that one onto Amu. Amu, who was perfectly aware of all of this, shivered slightly as she felt Ikuto's warm breath blowing across her neck, but didn't open her eyes.

"Now open your eyes," Ikuto instructed. Amu opened them, and immediately looked down at her neck. There was still a necklace there, but it was a different one. It had a similar chain as the original one Amu had for her own necklace, before she snapped it. But instead of a heart hanging from it, was a small silver ring. She gasped.

"Ikuto..." She whispered. "A ring? Do you mean...?"

Ikuto nodded silently, looking at her intensely.

"Wedding rings?" Amu asked. Ikuto nodded again.

"You'll say yes won't you?" He asked nervously. "I-I mean if you want to hold it off or just say no all together then..."

Amu blushed a deeper shade of red before interrupting him by throwing her arms around his neck.

"Yes!" She screamed, burying her face into his shoulder, tears of happiness streaming down her face. "Yes forever!"

Ikuto used his hand to lift up Amu's chin, grinning.

"I'm glad," He said, planting his lips on hers again. Amu returned he kiss, clinging onto Ikuto as if he would vanish if she let go.

"I did mention that I love you, right?" Ikuto asked, his lips still on hers. Amu smiled.

"It wouldn't kill you to say it more often," She whispered. "But yes, you did."

Ikuto grinned and leaned in for another kiss.

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**:O I can't believe it.**

**I**

**AM**

**DONE**

**WITH**

**THIS**

**STORY.**

**Well... after the epilogue, but whatever.**

**Review? Remember, 365 by the official end of the story... after the epilogue.**


	17. Epilogue

**Thank you CrAzYaNiMeFrEaKgUrL, xSakura, Kit2000, Natsuya801923, Shokara N' Strawberries, aniibabii, AmuxIkutoFan, iheartanime43, ArtGrrl-Sunna BlueCat, Luna-Chan926, Amuto 4-eva, appupuppu, xXxRizYxXx, Flower of Hell, kanameXakari, Kyuu no Amuto, sylvanicara, TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi, Kiku18, Ikutolover95, HarunaNiwa073, Animegirl67213, Emiko Hoshiko, xiiaoICEangel, carlaivy, KiNoMoTo18, xXxbunnyholicxXx, Pinkii-chan, XYNDiCATE, xRimaMashiroandAmuHinamorix, ichiruki12741, Lilium's Reign, and xhappily-randomx for reviewing.**

**I wanted ****_365 _by the end of ****_this _chapter. I got _382_**** by the end of ****_last _chapter_. _LET'S GO FOR 4OO SHALL WE?!**

**Well, this is it. The ****_last _chapter. *cries* I miss this story already and I didn't even finish it D:**

**Also... RIP Billy Mayes. This weeks' a record. Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and now Billy Mayes. God, the world's being depleted of all it's famous people T__T**

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_Five years later..._

Amu smiled as she woke up and saw Ikuto, still asleep, next to her. She carefully tried to remove his arms from around her and get out without waking him up. It was always like this. Ikuto would be exhausted every day from working at Easter, and Amu would always try her best to let him sleep in on the days he wasn't busy.

Unfortunately, this time she was unsuccessful. As soon as she was about to slip out of his hold, Ikuto immediately tightened his grasp and pulled Amu back agains this bare chest.

"I barely get any time with you anymore," He murmured, kissing her passionately. Amu smiled him.

"Well," She pointed out. "Between your work, Ai, and this next kid, we barely have time to even breathe."

Amu pointed at her stomach as she said 'this next kid'. Ikuto smiled fondly at it before sliding Amu's shirt up slightly so that her torso was revealed, and he gently stroked the small bump. It was barely a month old, not as big as it would be in the end, but it was still noticeable.

"Married for five years and the second kid's coming," Ikuto whispered to himself. "First Ai, and now this one..."

Amu smiled proudly before giving him a quick kiss.

"You're going to be a wonderful dad," She assured him. 'It's Ai we should be worrying about. She's already five, had five years to get used to being spoiled as the only child..."

Ikuto smiled.

"I don't want to worry about any of this right now," He said. Ikuto put Amu down on the bed so she was lying on her back, and he sat up next to her, one hand on the bed on either side of her head. He leaned down and kissed her again. After a few minutes, Amu turned her face away, breaking the kiss.

"Ikuto..." She panted, out of breath from the kiss. "Not here... not now. Ai'll be up any minute.. and... I'm already... pregnant..."

"Well don't think about any of that then," Ikuto said. "Forget about Ai, this next kid, everything. Right now, just focus on what _you_ want."

Amu tried, blushing at her thoughts of what she wanted. Suddenly, she grabbed Ikuto and pressed his face against hers, their mouths locked together again.

She shut her eyes and moaned softly as Ikuto's kisses slowly trailed down her neck. Amu opened her eyes, and gasped. Ikuto looked up abruptly and looked in the direction that Amu was staring at.

Standing in the doorway was a small five year old, her golden eyes wide with shock at what she was seeing (Well what'd you expect? What type of five year old wouldn't be shocked if she saw her shirtless dad ontop of her half-shirtless mom making out?). Her long midnight blue hair was tied into two loose ponytails that bounced slightly when she yawned sleepily.

"Damn it," Ikuto muttered, throwing the blanket over Amu and himself so that anything a five-year-old shouldn't be seeing wasn't visible. Amu pulled her shirt back down and slapped Ikuto playfully.

"Don't say that," She said quietly. "That's your daughter you're talking about."

Ikuto smirked.

"True," He admitted. Ai wander over slowly and sat on the edge of the bed next to Amu.

"Good morning, Mama," She said cheerfully. "Good morning, Papa."

Amu sat up and gave Ai a hug, smiling. Ikuto also sat up and wrapped his arms protectively around both of them.

"Morning, Ai," He said casually. Ai smiled brightly at her parents.

"Can we go to the park today?" She asked hopefully. Ikuto grinned.

"I can take the day off today," He suggested. "So we can all go."

"Okay!" Ai said happily, squirming out of her father's hold and skipping back to her room to get ready. Amu looked at Ikuto in wonder.

"You'd really do that?" She asked. Ikuto nodded and tightened his arms around Amu.

"Stupid Easter," He complained. "Keeping me so freaking busy. I don't have time to be the pervert you know and love anymore. Plus, I'm surprised that Ai still remembers my name! I'm always gone by the time she wakes up and I don't come back until she's been asleep for a while."

Amu returned her husband's hug.

"No comment about the pervertedness," She told him. "But as for Ai, there's no way she could've forgotten you. Every night when I tell her to go to sleep, she always says 'I'm going to wait in bed for Papa to come home!' Of course, we still have yet to see when she actually succeeds in staying up."

Ikuto bit Amu's ear and sighed deeply, obviously satisfied with the information he was hearing.

"I miss being perverted," He muttered, making Amu laugh as her cheeks grew red. In response, he leaned his head upwards and nibbled on her other ear, earning a squeak from the pinkette before he pressed his nose into the crook of her neck.

All of a sudden, Ai burst through the door, a happy smile still clear on her face. She ran over to her parent's bed.

"So can we go to the park now?" She asked excitedly.

"Maybe later," Ikuto mumbled, nuzzling Amu's neck some more. "Papa's busy right now..."

Ai stomped her foot in frustration.

"Now!" She pouted. Amu looked at Ai.

"Hand me that pillow," She mouthed quietly, using one hand to gesture toward a small couch in the corner of the room. Ai nodded and silently walked to the couch, picking up a cushion and handing it to her mother.

Amu waited a few moments before wacking Ikuto in the back of the head as hard as she could with the pillow. Ikuto yelped in alarm before jumping back from Amu. Ai glared at him.

"I want to go _now_!" She demanded.

"Yes, Ikuto," Amu said sweetly. "She wants to go _now. _So why don't you stop being a big pervert and take us _now._"

Ikuto sighed in defeat.

"Fine," He muttered, glaring at Amu."But don't think _you're _getting out of anything. Just wait until tonight."

Amu shrugged. Actually, she didn't really mind Ikuto's perverted side much anymore. She secretly enjoyed it, on the other hand. It was the only reminder of the days when they first met, when Amu would slap Ikuto just for trying to pick her up. Everything's changed so much since then, Amu wanted a bit of the past to stay with her forever. Letting go of her supposed hate for the pervert inside of Ikuto would let go of all that happened before, before that bitch entered their life together and took Amu away.

Amu's thoughts were interupting by a sharp tugging on her hand. She looked down and saw Ai pull on her.

"Come on!" The small five year old whined. "Let's _go!_"

Ikuto chuckled.

"Okay Ai," He said patiently while pulling a shirt over his head. Amu quickly ran into the closet and quickly changed into something also.

Meanwhile, Ai got bored and sat on her parent's bed, turning on the TV. Amu emerged from the closet, wearing a pink V-necked shirt that showed a tiny bit of cleavage, and a black skirt that stopped right above her knees. On her feet were black heels.

Ikuto couldn't stop staring at her. After looking over his shoulder to check if Ai was still engrossed in the TV, eyes still glued to the screen, he made his way over to Amu. Ikuto backed Amu to the wall and pressed her against it, one hand on either of her shoulders.

"Ikuto..." Amu began, but was stopped by another kiss. Ikuto pressed closer to her, deepening the kiss.

"Ikuto," Amu whispered again, her lips moving against his. "I thought you said tonight!"

Ikuto ignored her and broke the connection, his lips moving downwards to kiss every part of her upper body that wasn't covered by her clothing. Amu's breath hitched as she felt one of his hands sliding under her skirt. She wrapped her arms around her neck, tangling her fingers in his hair.

"Ew," A voice interupted them. Ikuto looked up and saw Ai standing there, a half horrified, half annoyed, expression on her small face. Ikuto pulled away and Amu reluctantly removed her arms from around him. Ai ran over to them and grabbed both their hands.

"Come _on!"_ She whined. "Stop doing gross things and take me to the park!"

Ikuto smirked and used on hand to pick up Ai, the other still tight around Amu's waist.

"Fine," He said defeatedly. "Let's go."

Ai grinned and ran happily to the car. Amu turned to smile at Ikuto.

"Come to think of it," She said. "The Suzuki's never came back for me. Did they honestly think that I'll be at that place they thought they sent me to for five years?"

Ikuto shrugged.

"I could care less," He commented. "They're dead to me."

"COME ON!" Ai screamed from the car. Amu tugged on Ikuto.

"We should go," She said. "Before Ai decides to blow up on us."

Ikuto laughed and followed Amu and a screaming Ai into the car.

_And they stayed a happy family for the rest of their lives. The Suzuki's never came back for Amu, and two years later it was on the news that their company was closed down for legal reasons. That news kept Ikuto smiling for months. The second baby was born, a boy named Aruto. And they all lived happily after that._

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**... Wow. That was corny. But still, that's the end :O REVIEW. I WANT 4OO. NOW. **

**Time to figure out how my next story's supposed to end.**


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